South Korean Police Detect Multiple "Homeless Baby" Killed Cases Birth | registered residence | Baby
The South Korean police are investigating multiple cases of "homeless babies", some of which have been confirmed dead. As of February 2, the police had reported the progress of the investigation of three cases in which babies without registered residence were killed by their parents after birth.
On the 2nd, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing police sources, that a woman in her thirties and her boyfriend in her twenties were arrested on the same day in Juji City, southern South Korea. The two were suspected of killing their child and burying them in the mountains. The case occurred in September last year. Five days after giving birth to a baby boy, the father who was watching the child strangled him to death. The two of them once falsely claimed that the baby boy died unexpectedly. According to the statements made by these two suspects to the police, they are financially strapped and afraid that their families will force them to break up after discovering that they have children, so they have resorted to violence against their own flesh and blood.
Another similar case occurred in the central city of Ota. A woman is suspected of starving a baby boy after giving birth. According to the police report, the suspect is in his twenties and was detained on June 30th. She found out she was pregnant after breaking up with her boyfriend. In April 2019, she gave birth alone at a hospital in Datian without registering her child locally.
The South Korean media exposed the "Suwon Freezer Infant Death Case" last month, causing public shock. The police reported on June 30th that the suspect in the case, a woman in her thirties from Suwon City, has been arrested. She gave birth to a baby girl and a baby boy in November 2018 and November 2019, respectively. The day after giving birth, she killed the baby and hid it in the freezer at home for several years. According to the suspect, she killed the baby due to economic difficulties and falsely claimed to have miscarried to her husband.
The South Korean Parliament passed a bill on June 30, requiring hospitals to inform the government of the birth of babies so as to register registered residence for babies in time. The bill aims to eliminate the phenomenon of "no household baby" caused by parents intentionally not registering. According to Yonhap News Agency, the occurrence of cases of unregistered infants being killed or abandoned, such as the Suwon Freezer Infant Death Case, has accelerated the relevant legislative process.
After the "Suwon Freezer Infant Death Case" was exposed, the South Korean government began to investigate the situation of more than 2000 children with birth records but no registered residence in hospitals since 2015. As of the afternoon of June 30th, the police have received a total of 95 commissions to investigate cases of "childless babies", and have launched investigations on 79 of them. The police have found that 8 children have died, and have obtained the whereabouts of 13 children. They are still searching for the whereabouts of the remaining 74 people. The police have issued a "no criminal suspicion" opinion and closed the four death cases.
