The Busan Teachers' Labor Union has urged stronger follow-up management of juvenile protection orders and tighter oversight of facilities used by minors, following a gang assault on a middle school girl at a karaoke room in Busan. Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
The Busan Teachers' Labor Union has urged stronger follow-up management of juvenile protection orders and tighter oversight of facilities used by minors, following a gang assault on a middle school girl at a karaoke room in Busan. Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

The Busan Teachers' Labor Union has urged stronger follow-up management of juvenile protection orders and tighter oversight of facilities used by minors, following a gang assault on a middle school girl at a karaoke room in Busan.

The union issued a statement Friday calling for the incident to serve as an opportunity to close gaps in the system, rather than being reduced to a discussion of individual misconduct or harsher punishment.

The union said the current follow-up management framework under the juvenile protection order system is not functioning adequately, pointing to reports that some of the alleged perpetrators had previously received protection orders.

It particularly cited a shortage of probation officers, uneven capacity among specialized agencies, and a lack of community-based support after protection orders expire. "We must expand the number of juvenile protection specialists and institutions, and make recidivism-prevention programs more substantive," the union said.

Regarding the assault continuing inside the karaoke room for about three hours, the union called on the Busanjin-gu district office and the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency to strengthen oversight of youth-accessible facilities and enclosed private-room establishments.

The union said authorities should inspect compliance with laws governing minors' access to such venues and examine how these businesses operate during periods when no manager is present.

The union also urged relevant agencies to review the structural exposure of young people to violent content and assess the effectiveness of related regulations, after it emerged that the perpetrators had filmed the assault themselves.

Police are investigating after 10 middle school girls allegedly assaulted a 15-year-old peer inside a karaoke room in Busanjin-gu on Saturday, July 18.


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