South Korea will check all 480,000 children set to enter elementary school this year for signs of child abuse, the Education Ministry said Sunday. 

“If soon-to-be enrollees are unaccounted for, failing to show up at preliminary meetings organized by their designated schools, we will visit their houses and check their living situations,” said an official from the Education Ministry.

This will be the government’s first nationwide check-up of pre-school children, after a high-profile case last year revealed blind spots in the system. 

In February 2016, the body of a 7-year-old boy named Shin Won-young was found months after his death, having been locked up and beaten for three months by his stepmother. The case came to light as a result of a nationwide survey on children who failed to enroll for school in time or had been absent from school for a long time.

The death sparked public anger and demands for the education authorities to increase monitoring for child abuse to respond more proactively to long absences from school.  

According to the ministry, elementary schools nationwide will gather information about would-be enrollees through preliminary meetings in February and will take steps to deal with children whose whereabouts are not accounted for by then. The school will first try to contact parents or guardians, and if this is not possible, will ask the district office’s social welfare manager to visit the children at their registered addresses.

“Authorities will closely cooperate with the police as well when something strange is discovered,” the ministry said.  

The number of reported child abuse cases has nearly doubled over the last 10 years in South Korea. In 8,207 of the 10,027 confirmed cases in 2015, the offenders were parents of the victim.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)