FEATURE: S. Korea's foster parents raise children but remain legal strangers

SEOUL - Kim Myung Hee remembers the frustration of being unable to move her newborn foster child to a nearby hospital, simply because she was not his biological mother.

In an interview with Kyodo News, the 55-year-old said she felt quite "lucky" that the child was then diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, which causes blood vessel inflammation, and that another hospital was willing to get him transferred under an emergency certification by two doctors who saw the illness as urgent.