President Park Geun-hye instructed officials Tuesday to come up with fundamental measures to prevent child abuse following the arrest of a couple over the death of their son.

She called on school and other relevant authorities to quickly confirm and take necessary actions if a student remains absent from school for a long time.

"Many people could have been shocked over the child abuse,"

Park said at a Cabinet meeting as she called for fundamental measures to ensure child abuse won't recur.

Four days ago police arrested a couple over the death of their seven-year-old son in 2012.

The father, 34, is accused of cutting the body into parts and wrapping them in plastic bags before putting them in a refrigerator at his home.

The father told police that he forcibly dragged his son -- whom he claims hated to take a shower -- into the bathroom for a shower in October in 2012, but the son fell forward and lost consciousness.

The son later regained consciousness, but he died as his father did not take him to a hospital for a month, according to police.

The son attended an elementary school in Bucheon, just west of Seoul, in 2012, though he stopped going to classes more than a month after he pricked a female classmate with a pencil and scribbled on her clothes with a colored pencil.

The government has launched a nationwide probe into primary school students who have stopped going to classes for a long time to check if they are suffering abuse. (Yonhap)