South Korean babies found dead in freezer amid search for 2,236 ‘missing’ infants
- A mother of three children aged 12, 10 and 8 has been accused of strangling 2 babies soon after they were born, then hiding their bodies in her freezer
- Authorities say the tragedy was ‘uncovered in a 1 per cent blind sampling’ of 2,236 infants who were not registered locally after their hospital births in an 8-year period
South Korean police have sought an arrest warrant for a woman accused of strangling two of her babies and storing their bodies in her freezer, in a case that observers say highlights the lack of support some mothers have in the country.
Authorities suspect there could be many other such cases after a government audit found a disparity between the reported number of infants born in hospitals and local registrations that must be made a month after birth for parents to access public health and childcare services.
Officials found that from the start of 2015 to the end of 2022, there were more than 2,000 babies who were not consequently registered. The total number of registered births during the eight-year period was 2.63 million.
The data discrepancy has prompted officials to investigate hundreds of cases of missing babies for potential infanticides.
The two dead babies were found after auditors picked 23 random cases – about 1 per cent of the 2,236 babies born in hospital but not later registered – and asked local officials to ascertain if they were safe, said the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).