By Lee Hyo-sik
A 31-year old woman has been arrested for killing two infant girls after adopting them to receive life insurance payments, the police said Monday.
According to the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency, the woman, only identified by her surname Choi, adopted an infant girl in April 2008 and bought three separate life insurance policies on her, paying 200,000 won in monthly premiums.
On Jan. 14 this year, Choi suffocated the 28-months-old baby girl, who had been hospitalized for intestinal inflammation at a university hospital in South Gyeongsang Province, using clothes on the hospital bed. The baby lapsed into coma and died on March 7.
Choi collected a total of 26 million won insurance money for the baby’s death.
According to the police, Choi did not sterilize the infant’s milk bottle and had her drink unclean water to have her hospitalized.
She was also found to have adopted a month-old baby girl in May 2005 and received 15 million won life insurance money 14 months later after the infant died in a university hospital in Daegu.
The baby was also hospitalized for intestinal inflammation.
A police officer said that after receiving a tip on a possible insurance fraud, investigators looked into the case in which two infant girls adopted by the same woman died of similar causes under similar circumstances.
“We have secured testimony from an individual who witnessed Choi suffocate the infant at the hospital. More importantly, Choi confessed to her crime.”
In a bid to protect child welfare and prevent possible abuse by foster parents, the government said last month both foreigners and Koreans seeking to adopt Korean children will be obliged to obtain prior approval from a court beginning next year.
Currently, those looking to adopt children here only need to obtain a written approval from either biological parents or grandparents. Children staying in orphanages can be adopted without consent.