It's already been two months since a woman in her twenties was discovered to have singled out unmarried women to purchase newborn babies from them.
Through a police investigation, it was revealed that infant trafficking typically occurs through brokers who rendezvous and make dealings with the mothers on the day they are discharged from the hospital. The brokers use the method of registering the children's births by presenting two sureties at the time of registration, effectively reporting the birth without a birth certificate and without the actual mother who birthed the baby.
Bucheon's Wonmi Police Station arrested a 43-year-old woman identified as 'A', who was working as a broker for infant trafficking, and forwarded the case to prosecution with the opinion that 'A' should be indicted for her charges. A 27-year-old divorcee identified as 'B' and and unmarried 21-year-old 'C' were also booked without detention for charges of trading, or attempting to trade, their children with 'A' for trafficking.
'A', who is a divorced woman with a high school daughter, had seen an inquiry about the adoption process by 'B' on Naver last March. 'B' wrote that she wanted to find a good home for her boy, a baby she had out of wedlock. After messaging each other for around two months on Kakao Talk, 'B' and 'A' met up at an OB-GYN in Daejeon, specifically on the day that 'B' was discharged. After receiving 'B's baby, 'A' paid for 'B's 1,000,000 KRW (~ 800 USD) hospital fees. When 'A' took 'B's son home, she lied to her boyfriend and daughter, telling them the baby was hers. 'A' reportedly testified during police investigations, "I wanted to raise a son so I paid money and brought him home."
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'A' had also contacted 'C' and planned to purchase her daughter at an OB-GYN clinic on the day 'C' was to be discharged. However, the dealing fell through when 'A' was arrested at her home in Yongin this past February 19.
'A' and 'C' were planning to make it appear as though 'A' was the one who had given birth to 'C's daughter using an alternative in the birth registration process which allows people to report births without a certificate. This method is typically used when mothers give birth at home and also for those who weren't able to report a birth due to the hospital which delivered the baby being shut down. Currently, there is no way for authorities to weed out the proceedings that infant trafficking brokers use to register false births.
A rep from a family registration center in Incheon relayed on March 7, "The people that use this alternative method don't even account for 1% of the total birth registrations. There is no way to check who the real family members are when [the person] doing the registration is accompanied by two sureties and have all the necessary paperwork."
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