Child Found Dead Due to Unreported Birth in Jinju, Gyeongnam... Investigation Underway Before Formal Charges

As police investigations into unregistered births are being conducted nationwide, it has been revealed that a child died in Jinju, Gyeongnam.

According to the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency on the 5th, there have been a total of 33 requests for cooperation and investigation related to unregistered births as of 2 p.m. on the 4th.

The police are currently investigating a woman in her 30s who gave birth and raised a child six years ago, but did not issue a death certificate even though the child died.

The mother, Ms. A, is known to have given birth at an obstetrics clinic in Jinju in January 2017 and after discharge, left the child in her parents' care. The child died due to health reasons, but she claimed there was no death certificate for the child.

The child was not registered at birth, and the police are conducting a pre-indictment investigation upon Jinju city’s request to determine whether there is any criminal suspicion.

The police plan to investigate Ms. A and those around her regarding when the child died and how the body was handled.

If criminal suspicion is found, the case will be formally investigated.

Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency.
Photo by Lee Se-ryeong

Police are also investigating a common-law couple in Geoje who killed their 5-day-old son and abandoned the body.

The biological father, Mr. B, in his 20s, and the biological mother, Ms. C, in her 30s, strangled their son at their home on September 9 last year, then placed the body in a plastic bag and abandoned it in a nearby stream. They cited the high cost of cremation as the reason.

The couple, who sustained their livelihood through convenience store part-time work and single-parent family support childcare benefits, committed the crime fearing that if their parents found out about the birth, they would separate.

During the police investigation, Ms. C revealed that before meeting Mr. B, her common-law partner, she had given birth to three children with another man.

She stated that only one of them was registered in her family register, while the other two were adopted domestically and overseas.

The police confirmed that the child registered in Ms. C’s family register is being raised at her parents’ home and are currently investigating when, through what channels, and where the other two children were adopted.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.