Number of 'ghost baby' cases rises to 400, police say

Police on Wednesday search for the body of an infant suspected to have been buried on a mountain in Gijang County, Busan in 2015. [YONHAP]

Police on Wednesday said they are investigating 400 cases of babies unregistered at birth.

This is double the number of 193 cases that the National Police Agency announced a day earlier that it is investigating.

According to the National Police Agency, 420 cases of "ghost babies," or unregistered babies, have been reported to the police as of Tuesday 2 p.m., and 400 are under investigation.

Of the reported cases, 15 newborns have been confirmed dead, the police said.

The number is expected to grow as local governments conduct a complete inspection of those cases through Friday.

The scope of investigations on "ghost babies" has expanded after the Board of Audit and Inspection said last month that it found 2,236 unregistered children between 2015 and 2022.

On Tuesday, police apprehended a woman accused of burying her dead newborn on a mountain in Busan in 2015.

Some 50 police officers were dispatched to search for the baby's body on a mountain in Gijang County on Wednesday.

Based on the mother's testimony, police searched for the body on a mountain about 15 minutes away from the home the suspect lived in eight years ago.

The mother denies accusations of child abuse and murder, telling police she found her eight-day-old baby dead while doing house chores and buried the body.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]