Woman arrested for allegedly abandoning newborn in front of child care institution in Daejeon

A Vietnamese student in her 20s has been taken into police custody for allegedly abandoning her newborn baby boy in front of a child care institution in Daejeon, Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday.

A police logo [YONHAP]

A Vietnamese student in her 20s has been taken into police custody for allegedly abandoning her newborn baby boy in front of a child care institution in Daejeon, Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Authorities from the Women & Youth Division of the Daejeon Metropolitan Police booked the Vietnamese student and her partner without detention on suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Act and are continuing their investigation.

The student gave birth to her baby at about 7:20 p.m. on Oct. 23 in a rental room in Yuseong District, and around 1:20 a.m. on Oct. 24, she placed the child outside a child care center in Seo District.

The partner is suspected of assisting in the abandonment. A sanitation worker collecting trash outside the center found the infant wrapped in clothes at about 7:50 a.m. that same day and alerted staff.

The police transferred the baby to the hospital, analyzed nearby CCTV footage and arrested the student and her partner at their residence on Oct. 25. Investigators said the woman had entered Korea on a student visa but had been in an undocumented status at the time she became pregnant.

“I was scared because I had given birth without my parents’ permission in Vietnam,” she told police. “I searched for a child care center on my smartphone and placed the baby there because I felt I couldn’t raise him."

Authorities are aiding the student with medical care for postpartum symptoms and have asked the Ministry of Justice to impose a travel ban while determining the full details of the abandonment.

The baby, who had been hospitalized for around 10 days, left the hospital in good health and now resides in a child protection center.

The Seo District Office of Daejeon is granting temporary protection to the newborn and reviewing administrative support measures for the mother and child.

"The mother had no medical records and gave birth without medical staff, making it difficult to issue a birth certificate," the official said. "We asked the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea to process the birth registration and assign nationality to the baby."

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY JUNG SI-NAE [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]