This photo provided by police shows a search under way on a hill in Geoje on July 3, 2023, to locate the body of a baby boy, allegedly murdered and buried by his mother.
SEOUL, July 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The National Police Agency is investigating 193 cases of babies not registered at birth, officials said Tuesday, amid a string of child abuse cases involving such undocumented babies, including the shocking discovery of two dead newborns being kept in a refrigerator.
Police have been expanding its probe into cases of “ghost babies” who have medical records of birth but no official birth registration, as the government launched a nationwide campaign to check the well-being of more than 2,000 unregistered babies.
The campaign came after a mother was apprehended last month on charges of strangling her two newborns, in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and secretly keeping their bodies in a refrigerator in her apartment in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.
Officials said the police agency has received 209 ghost baby cases so far, and 193 of them are currently under investigation. Of them, 20 have been located, and an investigation is under way to locate 177 others, they said.
Twelve of them have been confirmed dead, seven without any foul play. The remaining five cases are under investigation for suspected crimes.
Of the 20 children whose whereabouts have been located, nine were alive and found to be properly cared for, resulting in their cases being dismissed, officials said.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency separately said 38 ghost baby cases are under probe in Seoul alone, including 14 under preliminary investigation.
Of the total cases, 27 involved suspected abandonment of babies, including 24 newborns left in “baby boxes,” a place where parents could leave an unwanted baby anonymously.
The tally also included three cases of child abuse and two cases of illegal adoption, officials said.
(Yonhap)
