Child Abuse Reports Surge During Chuseok Holiday, Police Data Shows
Police data showed 690 child abuse reports during South Korea’s 2025 Chuseok holiday, a 72.5 percent increase from a year earlier, alongside a sharp rise in domestic violence reports.
Reports of child abuse rose sharply during South Korea’s Chuseok holiday last year, highlighting concerns about family violence during extended holiday gatherings.
Authorities received 690 child abuse calls over the 2025 Chuseok holiday, according to Korean National Police Agency data provided to ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Joon-hwan. That represented a 72.5 percent increase from the 400 cases reported during the harvest holiday in 2024.
The figures refer to reports received by authorities and do not by themselves indicate how many allegations were later substantiated. Even so, the scale of the increase places renewed attention on the risks faced by children when family tensions intensify over a concentrated holiday period.
Domestic violence reports also climbed substantially. Police data showed 8,017 reports during the 2025 holiday, up 52.8 percent from the previous year. The simultaneous increases suggest that child protection and domestic violence response are closely connected challenges during major family holidays.
Experts cited in the report said prolonged time together among family members can allow existing conflicts to escalate into violence, with those confrontations sometimes spilling over into child abuse. Chuseok is one of South Korea’s most important holidays, when many people travel to reunite with relatives and spend several days together. The data indicate that the holiday period can also create conditions requiring heightened attention from police and victim-support services.
The increase adds urgency to preventive measures before and during long holidays. Rapid assessment of emergency calls, separation of victims from alleged offenders when necessary, and coordination among police and child protection personnel can be especially important when normal routines and access to support networks are disrupted.
Police have pledged to strengthen victim protection from the initial emergency-call stage and to maintain a zero-tolerance approach toward offenders. The latest figures will put focus on how those commitments are implemented during periods when call volumes may rise and vulnerable family members may have fewer opportunities to seek help privately.
The data also underscore the importance of distinguishing between a reported case and a confirmed offense while ensuring that every warning receives an appropriate response. With both child abuse and domestic violence reports rising by more than half from a year earlier, the figures point to a need for sustained readiness rather than treating holiday-related family violence as an isolated seasonal concern.