A mother from Seoul, the capital of South Korea, could not hide her joy after reuniting with her daughter.

Han Tae-soon was over the moon after finding her daughter, Kyung-ha, who had been missing for over four decades.

The distressed mother had been looking for her without success for 44 years, recounting how she had disappeared.

"I was going to the market and I asked Kyung-ha, 'Are you coming?' But she told me, 'No, I am going to play with my friends,'" recalled Han, as noted by BBC News.

When she returned home after her market errands, 71-year-old Han did not find her then-six-year-old daughter.

It happened that while Kyung-ha was playing near her home, a strange woman approached her, claiming she knew her mother.

The unknown woman told Kyung-ha that her mother didn’t need her and took her to a train station.

Kyung-ha was abandoned at the final stop, where she was later rescued by police officers who took her to an orphanage.

She was later flown to the United States of America (USA), where she was adopted by a couple in Virginia.

Over the years, Han had been desperately looking for her daughter, moving from one police station to another.

"I spent 44 years ruining my body and mind searching for [my daughter]," Han said emotionally.

In 2019, she signed up with 325KAMRA, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to help reunite Korean families separated by war, adoption, death, and tragedy.

They soon found a match—Kyung-ha, who was now known as Laurie Bender, a medical practitioner in California.

The two got in contact, and Kyung-ha agreed to fly to Seoul to meet Han and confirm all the details.

"I felt guilty because she couldn't find her way home when she was a child. I kept thinking about how much she must have searched for her mother. Meeting her after all those years made me realize how much she must have longed for her mother, and it broke my heart.

It's like a hole in your heart has been healed—you finally feel like a complete person," Han said after the tearful reunion with her daughter at the airport.

Han has started the process to sue her government for failing to protect her daughter, as she was flown to another country.

Her case is not unique in South Korea, where many children have been sent abroad and adopted.

She was hurt that the country never looked into her case, despite her going public on television to share her plight and seek help.

Speaking to , Julia Murua, a mother of two noted it could be traumatising for a parent not to know where their child is.

"You better know if they are alive or dead and if they are dead, at least you know where their graves are. For over 40 years, definitely a lot has changed. I am not even 40 yet so I can imagine if I meet my mum, for instance, when I am that old, I don't know what could be.

I would urge parents to be careful with their kids, to keep a keen eye on them especially now when we hear kids are missing or abducted. We need to be vigilant," she said.

Closer to home, a Kenyan woman was overjoyed after reuniting with her parents in the U.S. after 22 years.

Rachael Ray and her husband excitedly picked up their daughter, Shiru, from the airport as they cherished a lovely family moment.

They opened up about the challenges they faced while trying to arrange for their daughter to travel abroad.

Source: TUKO.co.ke