Uijeongbu Police Station exterior / Courtesy of Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency

A teenage Vietnamese woman was arrested for allegedly abandoning her newborn baby in a bag at a restroom in an underground shopping mall in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, police said Thursday.

According to the police, a report was filed around 5 p.m. the previous day about a crying baby inside a black bag left in the restroom. Officers arrived at the scene and found a newborn girl with her umbilical cord still attached. The baby was immediately taken to a hospital and was reported to be in good health.

Using security camera footage from the mall and surrounding areas, police identified and apprehended a 19-year-old Vietnamese woman at her residence in Uijeongbu. She is a university student in Korea on a language training visa, not a work visa.

The police are investigating the motive for the crime with the assistance of a translator and will determine whether to apply for an arrest warrant after further questioning.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.