The Busan District Court on Wednesday sentenced a woman in her 20s to 15 years in prison for starving her 18-month-old son to death.

The court also ordered the woman to complete a 40 hour-program on treating child abusers and restricted her from getting employment in child-related facilities for ten years. 

The court said though it recognizes that the accused faced hard conditions in taking care of a child, she should be sternly punished for child murder. 

Police arrested the woman at an apartment in Busan’s Haeundae District last October for causing the death of her son by neglect. 

The accused habitually neglected the 18-month old without feeding him properly. At the time he was found, the toddler weighed less than five kilograms, or just 40 percent of the average weight of a child of that age. 

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison sentence for the woman.