South Korea sees a large number of "ghost babies"! Multiple people killed by biological parents and other ghosts | Korea | Baby

According to Yonhap News Agency, the National Investigation Headquarters of the South Korean Police Agency stated on the 10th that as of 5pm local time on the 7th, local governments in South Korea have received 1069 reports of "ghost baby" incidents, and are investigating 939 of them, confirming that 34 people have died.

The report states that "ghost babies" refer to children who have only hospital birth records but have not been registered for birth.

At present, the number of deaths in these cases involving "ghost babies" has increased to 34. Among them, 11 people may have been killed, 19 people's cases have been closed without criminal suspicion, and another 4 people have been found to have been killed by their own parents, etc. suspect have been transferred to the prosecution.

According to reports, South Korean police are concentrating their investigative efforts to search for 782 children whose lives are unknown.

According to previous reports by South Korean media, initially, the South Korean police found the bodies of two infants in a refrigerator in an apartment. As the investigation deepens, more and more incidents involving "ghost children" have surfaced

The Suwon Refrigerator Case has caused a stir in South Korea

On June 23, 2023 local time, a woman in her thirties was arrested on charges of murdering two babies born in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and storing their bodies in a refrigerator located in an apartment in Suwon City.

Yonhap News Agency quoted police sources as saying that the woman gave birth to a daughter at 2pm on November 3, 2018 and strangled her the next day after bringing her home. On November 19, 2019, she gave birth to another baby boy and killed the baby in the same way on her way home from the hospital.

The police said that the bodies of these two babies were stored in the refrigerator for four years and seven months, and three years and seven months, respectively. The suspect claimed that there was "no special reason" for storing the body in the refrigerator.

The Korean Herald reported that the woman has now admitted to the crime. After being arrested, she told the police that she had strangled her child due to financial difficulties and falsely claimed to her husband that she had already had the child aborted. Her husband told the police that he believed what his wife said.

On June 30th, the Gyeonggi do Police Department in South Korea handed over suspects to the prosecution on charges of murder and hiding bodies.

According to the Criminal Law of South Korea, the maximum sentence for infanticide is 10 years imprisonment, while those convicted of murder can be sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or at least 5 years imprisonment.

More "Ghost Baby" Incidents Revealed

After a series of cases involving unregistered babies being killed or abandoned, such as the Suwon Freezer Infant Death Case, public opinion has been shaken. The South Korean government has been investigating the issue of "ghost babies" since June 28th.

Korean media also revealed multiple cases involving "ghost children" that the police have recently investigated.

In April 2019, in Daejeon, 139 kilometers south of Seoul, a mother neglected to take care of her child and did not feed it for three days, resulting in the child starving to death.

Recently, this person has been urgently arrested. According to the police, the woman left her ex boyfriend 4 years ago without knowing she was pregnant and gave birth to a child alone at a hospital in Datian. However, she did not report the child's information to the local government and the baby's body has not been found yet. The suspect once claimed to have buried the child near the residence at the time, but later changed his statement multiple times and told the police of a different location.

On July 2, 2023, the police in Gyeongsangnam do, South Korea announced that arrest warrants had been issued to a man in his twenties and a woman in her thirties for strangling their children and disposing of their bodies in a river near Juji in Gyeongsangnam do.

The police stated that the child was born on September 5, 2022. The couple initially claimed that they found their child dead at home on September 9th. Due to financial constraints, they could not afford the cremation expenses and buried the child themselves.

According to South Korean media, before the couple's crimes were revealed, the local government discovered that the couple had not registered the birth of the baby and reported the disappearance of the child to the police. Subsequently, during further investigation by the police, the man admitted to strangling the baby and attempted to bury the body in the wilderness. At present, the police have found the baby's body with the assistance of the Coast Guard.

The Korean Herald quoted data from the South Korean Inspectorate as stating that a total of 2236 babies born between 2015 and 2022 were not registered after birth.

More news

According to the Global Times, according to the current birth registration system in South Korea, it is difficult to expose cases of abandonment or even infanticide if a baby has not undergone population registration. According to the South Korean Resident Registration Law, parents are required to register their babies within one month of birth, but any violation of the regulations will only result in fines; At the same time, medical institutions do not need to report the fact of a baby's birth to administrative agencies.

In order to address the loopholes in the birth registration system, the South Korean National Assembly held a plenary session on June 30th to pass an amendment to the Family Relations Registration Act, which implements the birth notification system. The amendment stipulates that within 14 days from the birth of a baby, medical institutions must report the birth information of the baby to local autonomous organizations through the Health Insurance Review and Evaluation Institute, and then the local autonomous organizations shall register the population. In addition, it is stipulated that if parents fail to register their baby for more than one month after birth, local government officials must notify the mother to register within 7 days; If the mother has not yet registered, the person in charge of the local autonomous organization can register the baby with the permission of the court. The amendment will come into effect one year from the date of publication, but the penalty clauses for medical institutions not notifying will not be separately stipulated.

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