▲ This Yonhap News TV image shows the headquarters of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency in Suwon, just south of Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) newborn negligence-police

(LEAD) Whereabouts of another unregistered baby unknown after 2 found dead in fridge

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with another baby missing)

SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) -- The whereabouts of another unregistered baby is unknown, officials said Thursday, after two undocumented babies were found dead in a refrigerator, revealing serious problems with the country's birth registration and child abuse prevention systems.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said it booked a woman in her 20s on charges of abandoning her baby. She claimed she gave away the baby to a stranger she got to know online a month after giving birth in December 2021, but police believe her statement is suspicious.

The incident is the second such case after a woman in her 30s was taken into custody Wednesday for killing two babies shortly after their births in 2018 and 2019, and storing their bodies in a fridge in her apartment in Suwon, just south of Seoul.

Earlier Thursday, police sought an arrest warrant for her on charges of infanticide.

She admitted to killing the babies, one boy and one girl, due to economic hardships while raising three children, saying she lied to her husband that she had an abortion, police said.

Police launched the probe earlier this month after receiving a report from the Suwon city government about the babies, who had no birth registration despite having birth records.

The two cases came to light as the Board of Audit and Inspection sought to check the well-being of babies that were born but not registered with the government. Such unregistered births are believed to amount to about 2,000 between 2015 and 2022, according to an estimate of the state auditor.

These cases revealed problems with the country's birth registration and child abuse prevention systems.

Under the current regulations, medical institutions are not required to report newborn births to the government. Parents are obliged to report the birth of their children to the government within a month after birth, but violators are punished only with small fines.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is pushing to amend the Act on Registration of Family Relations to require medical institutions to report births to local governments in an effort to prevent the abuse of unregistered babies, but the push has been met by opposition from health workers.

Hospitals are reluctant to take on the birth reporting duty due mainly to concern about the administrative burden from it and fears of shouldering responsibility in case something goes wrong in the reporting process.

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