Child protection agencies in the nation are too short-staffed. A special law for children has come into force, but effective implementation appears difficult due to the lack of counsellors, budget and infrastructure.

The number of child protection agencies stands at 56, with all facilities run by private child advocacy organizations. The number of staff members is 522 and the number of shelters for children is 46. Each shelter can house just seven children.

According to a civic group, a counsellor roughly covers 17,000 children aged up to 17. And the budget offered by the state decreased to 18.5 billion won ($16.5 million) in 2016, down from the previous year’s 25.2 billion won.

Whenever child abuse cases come to light, policymakers release the same policies without implementing them. The policies unveiled by the government are a collection of failed ones that have not been carried out.

As ministries might shirk the responsibility of dealing with child abuse by passing it onto one another, it would be helpful if there was a control tower under the Prime Minister’s Office to encompass all the relevant ministries. There should be a fundamental change in the structure of overseeing and tackling child abuse.

Last Friday, the government unveiled additional measures to combat child abuse, in response to recent cases that caused public outrage. One incident involved a 7-year-old boy named Won-young who died after being severely abused and neglected by his father and stepmother.

The government said it plans to encourage Koreans to attend classes on parenting. As of this year, about 80 percent of all child abusers were the victims’ parents.

In August, authorities will investigate and visit homes of all school children -- including those who attend high school -- who have not been in school for a long period of time or have taken a semester off. In the case of Won-young’s death, it was his school teacher who was worried about his absence in school and made a police report, bringing the issue into the public spotlight.

The government also released plans to combat violence in schools and protect young victims, including psychiatric support for students and the installation of surveillance cameras at all elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.

All of these measures are necessary -- though not sufficient -- to curb the growing number of abuse cases. What is puzzling is why such measures are only rushed out when high-profile cases happen.