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A woman in her 20s has been given a suspended prison sentence for killing her newborn.

The Cheongju District Court on Sunday sentenced the young mother to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for suffocating the baby to death after giving birth by herself at an apartment building in Chungju, a city in North Chungcheong Province, on June 5, 2024.

The court found that she committed the act after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, the father of the child. As an unmarried single woman, she reportedly feared the consequences of revealing the situation to her family.

“It is undeniable that parents can't violate their children's right to life,” the court said. “The sentence was determined after considering that the defendant committed it when she was in an unstable condition after giving birth and that she admitted her wrongdoing during her six-month detention period.”

Amid calls to strengthen penalties for killing babies, the National Assembly approved a bill in July 2023 to scrap the criminal code of feticide, a charge that had drawn criticism for giving lenient sentences than murder. This revision has come into force since February 2024.