Child abuse continued to increase in Korea, up to 6,403 cases last year, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

There were 6,058 cases in 2011 and 5,657 in 2010, officials said.

In 2012 parents accounted for 83.9 percent of the abusers, followed by teachers or neighbors standing at 8.2 percent and grandparents at 3.7 percent.

“Such crimes, including parental cruelty, come from people’s generous attitude towards physical and mental punishment,” Park Chang-pyo, an official from the National Child Protection Agency, told The Korea Herald.

“In Korea, the social consensus on what is right and wrong in disciplining children has not been made yet.”

The data was reported when the nation marked the national day for preventing child abuse.

A series of child abuse cases shocked the nation over the past few months.

Last month, an 8-year-old girl in Ulsan was brutally beaten to death by her stepmother for asking to go to a school picnic. The suspect called 119 and asked for help, saying her daughter drowned in a bathtub.

In July, then a 17-month-old baby was beaten by her nanny and now has brain damage.

Earlier this year, the Welfare Ministry submitted a bill to the National Assembly, calling for harsher punishment for abusers, including a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a 50 million won fine.

Currently, punishment for child abuse is a maximum of 5 years and 30 million won in fines.


By Suk Gee-hyun
(monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)