SEOUL (REUTERS, THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - South Korea's police chief apologised on Wednesday (Jan 6) amid an outpouring of grief and anger over the death of an adopted child in a country with a long history of adoption both domestically and abroad.
The 16-month-old girl, who media have identified by just her given name, Jeong-in, died on Oct 13 after being taken to hospital with injuries.
"I deeply apologise for failing to protect the life of a young child who suffered abuse," Kim Chang-yong, the commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, told a news conference.
The apology came a day after President Moon Jae-in expressed regret over the girl's fate and called on the authorities to make the welfare of adopted children a priority.
Kim vowed to reform the response to child abuse and he also removed the local police chief from his post.
Media said reports had been lodged with the police about the girl before her death.
Kim said the case was being investigated, but said nothing about any charges. He did not comment on media reports the adoptive parents were being investigated.
The president of the Korean Pediatrics Society, Dr Lim Hyun-taek, said murder charges should be brought against the adoptive parents, citing "clear signs of intentional trauma".
The pediatrician of 20 years pointed to the girl's ruptured pancreas as a key indication of willful injury, as opposed to an accidental fall as claimed by the adoptive parents.
"The pancreas is located deep in the abdomen, making it a highly uncommon organ to be injured," he said. Its injury is associated with more serious accidents such as vehicle collision or long fall, he added.
"Such case of a ruptured pancreas seen in the toddler is very unlikely to be a result of an accidental injury."
Findings from the autopsy also showed the toddler had sustained abdominal damage a few days prior to her death.
"This means that they had already inflicted on the toddler similar kinds of abdominal injuries days before, and then again the day she died," Dr Lim said. "So the mother's claims of having dropped her by accident hold little credibility."
He submitted a 74-page written statement outlining the possibility of murder or manslaughter based on medical evidence to the Seoul prosecution on Tuesday.
In a statement on Monday, the Korean Women Lawyers Association also proposed the case be reviewed as a potential murder.
The toddler died about eight months after she was adopted in February.
When she was brought to an emergency room at a western Seoul hospital on Oct 13, she was already in a state of cardiac arrest. She was badly bruised, with her ribs fractured and stomach bloated from internal bleeding, according to the hospital records. Her death certificate read abdominal trauma.
Following investigations, prosecutors indicted the adoptive mother on charges of child abuse homicide, and her adoptive father for child neglect.
Dr Lim lamented the lack of police action despite three separate reports of child abuse filed by a day care centre as well as a pediatrician who examined her. Her teacher had brought her to the pediatrician's clinic after noticing bruises and weight loss. At the time police concluded there were no suspicions of abuse.
The hashtag "Sorry, Jeong-in" has trended on Korean Twitter this week and several actors and singers, including a member of top band BTS, Jimin, posted the hashtag on their social networks and made donations to childcare agencies.
The case has shone a spotlight on child abuse.
The Korean Women Lawyers Association said 28 adopted children had died in 2018 alone from abuse, according to the National Centre for the Rights of the Child, and 80 per cent of the child abuse takes place within the family.
South Korea has been a source of babies for adoption by people abroad since the 1950-1953 Korean War, especially to the United States. Adoption is also relatively common domestically.
A total of 387 children were adopted domestically and 317 abroad in 2019, according to health ministry data.
