Calls for new birth notification system grow after baby killings

South Korea is facing growing calls for changes to the birth notification system after an infant’s body was found in a trash can in Ulsan following other recent infanticide cases.

Ulsan Nambu Police Station said Friday that a dead baby had been found the previous day at an apartment complex in Ulsan. A cleaner reportedly found the body in the trash can and reported it to the police.

The police are trying to track down the person who abandoned the baby.

On Wednesday, a Suwon woman in her 30s admitted to killing two babies after their bodies were discovered in a freezer at her apartment. She admitted to the killings at the time of the raid.

The woman gave birth to the infants in November 2018 and November 2019. She strangled them to death after bringing them home. The suspect was facing increasing financial difficulties. She was formally arrested Friday.

In Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, a woman in her 20s was booked by the police Thursday on charges of handing over her baby right after giving birth in December 2021, to someone she met on the internet.

It was also revealed Thursday that an infant born in 2022 in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, died of malnutrition around 76 days after birth.

Those cases were revealed during an inspection ordered by the Board of Audit and Inspection. The state audit agency has been looking into these 2,236 cases in which births had been logged by hospitals but corresponding birth registrations had not been made with the local government.

Save the Children, a global nongovernmental organization, said in a statement Friday that a new birth notification system should be introduced as soon as possible to protect babies. The proposed birth notification system would make it mandatory for maternity hospitals to inform local governments of all births.

Under the current system, a child's birth has to be registered by the parents within a month. Failure to do so is punishable, but the fine is just 50,000 won ($38).

Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyu-hong said at a meeting on Thursday that "to prevent such cases, the ministry will make efforts to draw up a bill for a birth notification system."