SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president apologized Thursday for poorly managed foreign adoption programs that were rife with abuses and fraud, months after the country’s truth commission admitted state responsibilities for such practices for the first time.

President Lee Jae Myung said in a Facebook post that he was offering “heartfelt apology and words of comfort” on behalf of the country to South Koreans adopted abroad and their adoptive and birth families.

Findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and recent court rulings have confirmed some cases of human rights abuses in the course of international adoptions, Lee said, adding that the government failed to play its role in such cases. He did not elaborate.

Lee said he “feels heavy-hearted” when he thinks about “a

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