Probe turns up more cases of dead newborns

Three more additional cases of parents burying newborns that were not reported to the local governments were discovered since a nationwide investigation started since Wednesday. Most of the cases were caused by economic hardship.

The 35 year-old woman, who had stored her two infants in a freezer at an apartment since 2018, being taken away to the prosecutors’ office from the Suwon Nambu Police Station in Gyeonggi on Friday. The woman is charged with murder instead of the initial infanticide. [YONHAP]

The government's probe into the whereabouts of unregistered babies uncovered more cases of parents who illegally disposed of the remains of dead newborns.

The investigation has so far discovered three more additional deaths since it began last week to a total of five, including the bodies of two newborns stored in a freezer in an apartment in Suwon, Gyeonggi last month.

Changwon District Court on Sunday issued an arrest warrant for a couple in Geoje, South Gyeongsang, for hiding the body of a newborn in September 2022.

The husband in his 30s and his wife in her 20s were put under emergency arrest on Friday, allowing police to hold them for 48 hours.

The parents were suspected of burying the body of the baby boy in a plastic bag on a hillside five days after he was born. However, they changed their statements to disposing the body in a stream.

While there were reportedly obstetrics and gynecology records of the baby boy in nearby Goseong County, the couple’s legal residence, the birth was not registered.

The police said the couple first told the local government the child was sent for adoption. They later said the baby died while sleeping and that they buried the remains because cremation was too expensive.

The police have been searching for the body since Friday.

The Suwon District Court on Sunday also approved an arrest warrant against a woman in her 20s, accused of burying the body of a newborn she gave birth to in April 2019 in Daejeon.

The police made an emergency arrest on Fridaty.

The baby boy reportedly died from negligence after he was left alone at home for three days.

The police said the woman made a full confession. She told them she buried the baby near the apartment where she used to live in Daejeon.

On the same day, a woman in her 50s living in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, was taken into custody for allegedly burying the body of a baby boy she gave birth to in September 2015.

The baby boy reportedly suffered from Down's syndrome.

However, the woman was released Saturday when prosecutors rejected the police's request for a warrant, citing statute of limitation concerns.

The statute of limitations for abandoning a body or hiding a body is seven years.

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) last month announced there were 2,236 unregistered children, dubbed "ghost children," between 2015 and 2022.

These children were given a temporary number after birth but were not reported to the local government.

Parents must report births to the local government within a month. However, some parents fail to register their newborns, denying the children primary health and education benefits and exposing them to abuse.

The government tracked down a sample of 23 children judged to be at especially high risk.

This investigation found the bodies of two infants born in 2018 and 2019 stored in a freezer in an apartment in Suwon.

The mother was referred to the prosecutors’ office on Friday after she was charged with murder, an upgrade from the initial charge of infanticide.

If convicted, the woman faces a sentence of at least five years in prison with a maximum of death.

Gyeonggi has the largest number of unreported children at 641, followed by Seoul with 470 and Incheon with 157.

The greater Seoul area alone accounts for 57 percent of the total.

The next largest area outside of the Seoul metropolitan area is South Gyeongsang with 122, followed by South Jeolla with 98.

On Friday, the National Assembly passed a bill with bipartisan support requiring medical institutions to report births to the local government within 14 days.

The amendment was passed with 266 votes in favor and just one abstention.

The new law will take effect one year from the date of promulgation.

Medical institutions, including hospitals, are to report births through the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

However, the bill did not stipulate punishments for noncompliance.

Critics also say the law could lead to more births outside of hospitals or other medical institutions, putting the health of mothers and babies at risk.

BY LEE HO-JEONG, SARAH KIM [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]