Elementary Students Drive for Over 4 Hours: 'Juvenile Offender' Status No Shield

[Anchor]

Elementary school students have been apprehended by police after stealing a father's car and driving without a license for over four hours. It was discovered that one of them had been involved in an accident while riding in a stolen vehicle just a week prior. Instead of releasing these children, who are under the age of criminal responsibility, to their parents, the police have sent them all to protective facilities.

Reporter Yoo Soo-hwan has the story.

[Reporter]

A white sedan climbs onto the sidewalk and slowly comes to a stop in front of a crosswalk.

To the surprise of onlookers, the individuals who step out of the car are elementary school students, shorter than the vehicle itself.

On May 20, elementary students identified as A and B secretly took a car belonging to B's father from an apartment parking garage in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and drove without a license.

They drove for 60 kilometers over four hours, traveling from Cheonan to Dangjin.

Police, who were dispatched following a report from a guardian that the son had stolen the car and fled, tracked them down and apprehended them in front of an internet cafe in Dangjin.

It was revealed that student A, who engaged in this dangerous unlicensed driving, had been caught just a week earlier for another vehicle theft in Cheonan.

The vehicle that A and others had stolen at that time had even crashed into a guardrail after speeding through a school zone.

At the time, police obtained an emergency escort warrant for student C, who was driving, and sent them to a protective facility, but student A, who was only a passenger, was sent home because they were under 14 and classified as a "juvenile offender" (exempt from criminal punishment).

However, as they committed a similar offense just one week later, the police sent both A and B to a protective facility, just as they did with C.

[Oh Seon-ah / Chief of Women and Youth Affairs, Cheonan Dongnam Police Station: We determined that there is a very high risk of these juvenile offenders being exposed to further crimes in the future, and we concluded that custody under their guardians alone would not be sufficient for proper protection, supervision, and management.]

With the recent popularity of the Netflix drama "True Education" bringing increased social attention to the issue of juvenile offenders, investigative agencies are increasingly applying for emergency escort warrants when there is a high possibility of recidivism and it is determined that parental supervision is difficult, even for those under the age of criminal responsibility.

A lawyer who previously served as a juvenile court judge told SBS, "Unlicensed driving by juveniles under the age of criminal responsibility should be viewed more seriously than that of adults," adding, "Releasing them to guardians is not the answer; firm and serious measures are essential."

(Video reporting: Kim Gyeong-han, TJB | Video editing: Park Ji-in | Screen source: Yonhap News TV, Netflix)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.