Brothers Home Welfare Center Incident Countermeasures Committee
Step inside the house of horror, where no one leaves unscathed.
Drops of condensation drip from the ceiling, splashing onto the shoulder of an inmate. Behind the bars of his window, he can only see a tiny fragment of the sky—freedom feels so close, yet so far away. He still remembers, just months earlier, walking through the bustling streets of Busan, strolling along the waterfront, and enjoying seafood with his friends. Those days now feel distant, as his daily life is confined within the cold, gray walls of the terrible Brother’s Home.
- A place from which no one emerges unscathed
The doors of the Brother’s Home orphanage (형제복지원) first opened in 1960, then called Brother’s Orphanage or Brothers Welfare Center. For a decade, everything ran smoothly. The orphanage welcomed young children and newborns without families, hoping to connect them with people outside who might one day become parents to these unfortunate souls. Thanks to the center’s efforts, 31 children were adopted abroad.
In 1970, the facility expanded to accommodate social delinquents assigned by the municipality. Individuals labeled as delinquents encompassed a wide category of people deemed inconvenient for the government and administration. As a result, not only orphans and a few social cases, but also the homeless, disabled individuals, and even political dissidents could end up there. Anyone who could “disturb” Korean society could be removed in a snap.
Brother’s Home grew into a center for sensitive cases, featuring factories and workshops where “patients” were forced to work daily to bring money into the facility. Gradually, this place, initially founded for a noble purpose, turned into an open-air prison, a sinister site later compared to concentration camps when the scandal broke.
Through successive construction phases, Brother’s Home eventually became a complex of twenty-three buildings, including twelve bathrooms, a dining hall, a hospital, an office, storage space, and seven rehabilitation centers—all built by the unfortunate residents of this cursed camp. Occasionally, a building had to be demolished and rebuilt larger, proportional to the number of people unjustly sent there.
In 1975, following further expansion, abuses began and continued until the orphanage closed in 1988. At its head was PARK INGEUN, president of the founders’ circle and a former military officer. Korea was in a delicate period, emerging from occupation, war, and military dictatorships. The government’s policy was to enforce a social “purification” to improve the country’s image in preparation for global engagement, particularly for the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympic Games. Repression was fully implemented.
Many people were arrested without valid reason or warrant, and without knowing when—or if—they would ever leave. At full capacity, 4,000 people were held within its walls. Brother’s Home was not the only such facility in the country; in the mid-1980s, nearly 16,000 people were reportedly in similar institutions. Yet it gained the darkest reputation when patients began to die.
« Such illegal acts were brought about by the unjust exercise of public power by the state. » – TRC
A 2022 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) determined that between 1975 and 1988, 657 people lost their lives. The media soon dubbed the center “Korea’s Auschwitz.” The true number of victims remains uncertain, as some bodies were reportedly buried in secret locations or given to medical institutions for research. The same report also highlighted human rights violations, arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and sexual abuse.
Investigations began at the time, but obtaining evidence was difficult, as the municipality turned a blind eye. Public authorities tolerated Brother’s Home practices and even provided funding based on the number of patients—or detainees. The term used by the center for inmates was “vagrants.” Nothing prevented the imprisonment of entirely sane people in this asylum-like facility.
The TRC exposed the scandal to the public, revealing the dark truth. Despite government attempts to suppress it, Korea’s reputation suffered. Former patients were called to testify about the abuses, forcing the government to issue apologies for the human rights failures of that era. In December 2003, compensation of up to 80 million won per year of captivity was provided, acknowledging the state’s responsibility and inaction.
The TRC investigation report remains publicly available on its official website. The first inquiry dates back to 1987, a year before the center closed, but justice took fifteen years to be realized. This case marked a turning point, as it was the first time the government’s responsibility was recognized in a large-scale collective judicial case.
- A blood-stained hand extended toward the West
The “purification” policy was partly in response to the rapid growth of major cities, which struggled to manage post-war population influx. In 1945, Busan’s population grew from 280,000 to 1.05 million in just a decade, reaching 3.5 million by 1985. Wealthy families pressured the government to remove “vagrants” from city streets—people often homeless or in precarious employment.
Physical and sexual abuse were not the only injustices at Brother’s Home. Regarding overseas adoptions, TRC investigations from 2022 to 2025, long after victim compensation trials, uncovered potential links between the center and an international child trafficking network, including falsified adoption documents.
After the war, Korea became one of the largest countries for international adoptions. Between 1953 and 2000, roughly 200,000 children were placed with international families, mostly in Europe, the United States, and Australia. Today, large Korean communities remain in these regions, particularly Australia, which fosters many academic exchanges with Korea.
In the 1980s, the peak of adoptions was reached, with nearly 8,000 children sent abroad each year, thanks to state-subsidized agencies such as Holt, Eastern, SWS, and KSS, among the most well-known. The government provided a type of allowance to these organizations based on the number of adoptions they achieved, which led Brother’s Home in particular to falsify documents, create fake birth certificates, or change children’s names. The TRC highlighted that many of these children were not actually orphans.
« It was confirmed that when a woman entered either facility while pregnant and gave birth there, her newborn was transferred to an adoption agency for overseas adoption within a day » —JACK GREENBERG, “The Korea Times” journalist.
Some institutions offered temporary childcare to help poor families, while simultaneously seeking affluent prospective parents. Over time, an institutionalized trafficking system emerged, aided by the shame felt by many single mothers who sometimes gave up their children to avoid social disgrace. In 2022, the TRC opened its investigation into illegal overseas adoptions, mainly between the 1960s and 1990s.
This investigation significantly advanced justice. In July 2025, the government passed a law closing all private adoption agencies. Adoption procedures now fall under state control, eliminating falsified reports and illegal child sales. A national review also began to examine adoption cases from the 1970s and 1980s to verify their legality.
As of now, out of 367 adoption cases, 56 have been recognized as illegal. This is a small fraction of the estimated 140,000 adoptions between 1955 and 1999 but represents a first step toward justice for children sent abroad at a young age. Early overseas adoptions also targeted mixed-race children, descendants of Korean mothers and American fathers. Some of these secretive adoptions involved children born directly in Brother’s Home.
- In search of truth
Between the trial and the TRC investigation, authorities sought PARK INGEUN, former director of Brother’s Home, but he had immigrated to Australia with his family and died there in 2016. After the center closed, he reportedly joined the quasi-sectarian Siloam House, reusing Brother’s Home’s buildings and grounds to continue some abuses. Among the documents found were records of admissions, transfers, adoptions, and death reports, earning Siloam House the nickname “successor to the house of horrors.”
Nothing proves that Brother’s Home truly closed in 1988. An independent 1987 investigation by the New Korean Democratic Party brought PARK INGEUN before the Ulsan District Court, which in June sentenced him to ten years in prison and a 681 million won fine for illegal detention, abductions, and embezzlement.
The Daegu Court of Appeals later dropped the detention charges, and in March 1988, the Supreme Court of Korea ruled him not guilty, acquitting PARK INGEUN of abuse and confinement. He ultimately served two and a half years for embezzlement. The TRC was founded in 2005 to protect human rights in cases involving the state from the post-war period onward.
« Establishing the truth about the state violence committed at these facilities is a priority for the Commission » —JUNG KEUNSIK, TRC Chairman
Brother’s Home case was not unique. Since the early 1960s, cities such as Daegu, Daejeon, and Gwangju opened similar centers, but Busan’s remained the harshest. TRC investigations revealed that the “vagrants” were not just orphans, homeless, disabled, or minor delinquents, but ordinary people deemed socially inconvenient.
Victims included alcoholics, children traveling alone, and people who simply fell asleep in the streets. Abuse was gratuitous, intended to force conformity. The 1953 Act of Execution of Duties by Police Officers allowed police to arrest civilians and send them to hospitals or correctional centers—procedures rarely followed, leaving free rein for atrocities.
Regarding compensation, only 26 victims received payments out of thousands, many choosing to remain silent. During its operation, Brother’s Home emphasized “increasing the autonomy of all patients,” regardless of cost.
- Heart-wrenching testimonies
Most published testimonies anonymized victims. One boy, then called OH SEUNGOH, recounted being forcibly sent to Brother’s Home for wearing “inappropriate” clothing, accused of stealing food, and subjected to genital torture with a lighter by a police officer.
Korea was in a chaotic, totalitarian state during Brother’s Home’s peak. Following occupation and war, military dictatorships rose. In October 1981, CHUN DOOHWAN led the peninsula, ordering that by the 1988 Seoul Olympics, there would be no beggars or homeless in city streets. The whole country followed.
The Busan police, where Brother’s Home was located, implemented a reward system for officers who arrested and detained “vagrants.” These rewards ranged from bonuses to days off. While the center was originally built to accommodate 500 patients, the number quickly rose to 3,000. Yet, a law prohibited more than eight people from sharing the same room in a residential or medical facility; with such overcrowding, nearly 90 people were reported per room.
Testimonies highlighted the decrepit living conditions, describing rooms without ventilation or heating. Korea experiences extreme temperature fluctuations, from 40°C in summer to -20°C in winter, and even lower in mountainous regions. These conditions may have contributed to the high number of deaths. Furthermore, Brother’s Home was almost impossible to escape once inside its walls. Surrounded by fortress-like barriers, guards closely monitored anyone attempting to flee. Nevertheless, 35 people managed to escape.
« The inmates at Brother’s Home, many of whom were children, were beaten almost daily, fed almost nothing and lived a hellish existence as slaves. » – MOON MOOIL, Prosecutor General
Victims described the center as being organized like a military camp. At the top of the pyramid was the commander, followed by the director, and then the “vagrants,” who were divided into sections, each with a leader and a secretary. These sections were further subdivided, each again with its own chief. Within these sections, those in charge of operations were themselves patients. Among the rehabilitation courses they were required to attend, witnesses mentioned Catholic instruction—having to memorize Bible verses—as well as classes where videos glorifying PARK INGEUN were shown.
Regarding physical abuse, it was common for an entire section to be beaten and tortured for the fault of a single patient. The forms of punishment had names such as “Electric Lines,” “Wonsan Bombing,” “Hiroshima,” “Backwards Desk,” “Han River Railway Bridge,” “Ferry,” “Riding Posture,” and “Chili Powder.” According to testimonies, more than the harsh temperatures, torture—and even murder—was the leading cause of death for many victims.
Sexual violence was also a daily occurrence. Anonymous witnesses spoke of being raped by their leaders, often of the same sex. Most of the witnesses were men, who reported experiencing or witnessing such abuse while still children or adolescents. A few women were also victims, but very few had the courage to speak publicly about it.
Finally, the “vagrants” primarily served as labor for Brother’s Home. They worked in factories producing materials such as leather, wood, cotton, and fishing nets, most of which were exported to Japan. The majority of the workers were children, whose small fingers made delicate work easier, and they were sometimes paid a small wage for their efforts. Regardless of the type of labor, no one was spared.
Psychological abuse was also rampant. Several patients were confined in psychiatric units for refusing to follow the center’s rules. While some were genuinely ill (most notably those with epilepsy), others had no psychiatric disorders yet were still forced to undergo medication. Witnesses spoke of taking “red pills” and “wacko pills.”
The red pills consisted of chlorpromazine, an antipsychotic that regulates dopamine in the brain. This treatment sometimes caused side effects, which patients reported, including dizziness, drowsiness, and tremors. In 1986 alone, Brother’s Home purchased 250,000 chlorpromazine tablets for 395 admitted patients. Repeated, high-dose use of antipsychotics like chlorpromazine can have long-term adverse effects, highlighting the ongoing pursuit of justice by the center’s “vagrants.”
- Progress for the Future ?
Public apologies were issued to the victims in 2018, notably highlighting the government’s involvement after several former patients sought to reveal the full truth about this dark period. Thirty-six centers similar to Brother’s Home were identified. Despite this, during the various investigations and multiple trials, very few names were made public in order to also protect certain alleged perpetrators whose guilt could not be proven.
Transcripts of testimonies, court decisions, police documents, administrative correspondence, and death records have also not been disclosed. Yet, there remains hope regarding adoption files currently under review. However, the procedures have been put on hold since President YOON SUKYEOL was removed from office.
« The government urgently needs to acknowledge all the human rights violations it enabled, encouraged, and systematically participated in, and, as soon as possible, begin reparations. » —LISA WOOLRIM SJOBLOM, Korean adoptee
Recently, Brother’s Home also gained attention in the West following a rumor that the popular series “Squid Game” was inspired by the center for its deadly games. On social media, particularly TikTok, people described lethal games that the patients supposedly had to endure in a building painted green and pink. It was later discovered that the images actually belonged to a Turkish digital artist who uses AI to create his works, often featuring these pinkish hues.
During the TRC investigation, attention was also drawn to another center called Seongam Academy, which was found to have committed inhumane acts of kidnapping and detention similar to Brother’s Home. With such a large-scale case coming to light and activist groups forming, Korea has been making progress in seeking the truth and repairing the harm caused to so many people. Regarding the academy, its actions reportedly date back to the Japanese occupation of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
In 2013, a group of Brother’s Home survivors was formed after a man named HAN JONGSEON protested in front of the National Assembly the previous year. In 2015, a larger number of survivors followed suit, publicly shaving their heads to make the government hear their voices. They demanded the passage of a law called the “Brother’s Home Special Act” to acknowledge the wrongs and human rights violations, and to protect citizens so that a similar situation could never occur again under a democratic government. This gives hope that such centers or camps will never reopen.
This entire affair profoundly shook Korea, and even the world. In August 2023, the UN Human Rights Council submitted an investigative report on Brother’s Home to promote “truth, justice, reparation, and non-recurrence” of such acts. Other organizations have also taken interest in the center, such as the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a non-profit institute working to strengthen human rights in the global economy. There is no doubt that Brother’s Home, although closed, remains open in the public consciousness as a wound difficult to heal.
No one left Brother’s Home unscathed—whether ill, traumatized, or even disabled. Once freed, former patients developed survivor’s guilt, feeling guilty for being alive while others were not. Some ultimately committed suicide, unable to resume their lives after being unjustly confined in the center—or another similar facility. Nearly forty years after the closure of the terrible “Korea’s Auschwitz,” we must not forget. Not forgetting allows us to learn from the past and improve the future, so that no one ever becomes a “vagrant” again.
If you want to learn more, Netflix released a documentary this year on Brother’s Home as part of the investigative mini-series “The Echoes of Survivors.”
Have you ever heard of Brother’s Home or other similar cases? We can compare this affair to camps in North Korea or China, showing that even when measures are taken in one country, there is still much to be done in a neighboring one. Share your thoughts on this re-education center in the comments, and we’ll see you in January for the launch of the third edition of KSIS!
Journalist : Pillet Anaïs
Sources : KSTATION TV, under pictures, hyperlinks
