"Looking for Kim Sun-young's Family"… Frenchman Searching for Roots of Deceased Wife

Story of the late Kim Sun-young, born in 1978
Transferred from Daegu City Hall to Baekbaekhap Orphanage
"Daughter is curious about her mother and family"

A French man is searching for his family on behalf of his Korean wife, who was adopted from Korea to France and died immediately after giving birth to their daughter.

Childhood photo (left) and adult photo of the late Kim Sun-young, a Korean adoptee in France. Adoption Support Team, Korea Institute for Child Rights Advocacy

On the 6th, Yonhap News reported that the Adoption Support Team of the Child Rights Protection Agency recently received a story from Fr?d?ric Granat (52), the husband of the late Anne Laure Amil (Korean name Kim Sun-young, who was 31 at the time of her death), who was adopted to France. Granat said, "I want my daughter to meet her maternal relatives."

Granat's wife, Sun-young, is estimated to have been born on April 11, 1978. Immediately after her birth, she was handed over to Baekbaekhap Orphanage through Daegu City Hall, and on September 27 of the same year, she was adopted by a family in France through Holt Children's Services. Granat met Sun-young in Marseille, the third largest city in France, and they got married. They lived in Marseille, which faces the Mediterranean and has a mild climate, before moving to Digne-les-Bains in the southern Alps region. On June 1, 2009, they had a daughter named Lina. Unfortunately, Sun-young passed away from preeclampsia three days later, on June 4.

Late Korean adoptee in France, the late Kim Sun-young (right), and her husband. Provided by the Adoption Support Team, Korea Institute for Child Rights Advocacy.

Granat said that their daughter, now a teenager, has recently started to take an interest in her mother's country. "My daughter is proud that both she and her mother have Korean heritage. I think she expresses her longing for her mother through her interest in Korea and Korean culture," he explained.

He added, "She wants to know more about how her mother was born, why she had to be abandoned, and what kind of people her mother's Korean family are. I want to visit Korea with her next year so that she can proudly feel that she is Korean," he emphasized.