By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim

SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters Life!) - The shocking tale of an little girl known as Na-young may lead to some of the biggest changes South Korea has seen in laws on the sexual assault of children.

Na-young, a pseudonym for the girl, was eight when she was abducted, beaten, raped and sexually abused by a 57-year-old man about a year ago. She lost about 80 percent of her colon and will need a colostomy bag for the rest of her life due to the damage to her internal organs, according to court records.

A few weeks ago, the assailant Cho Doo-soon was given 12 years in prison. A court said he had diminished capacity for his decisions because he was drunk, which weighed into sentencing.

The country was outraged. The president said the law needed to be changed to include life in prison and the fractious parties in the National Assembly reached a moment of rare unity in saying they would work together to increase punishment.

"There were just so many problems with the system and the way it handles the sexual assault of children," said Shin Yee-jin, who is Na-young's psychiatrist.

Child welfare advocates said the problems begin with the law that allows for a maximum sentence of 15 years for rape; a callous attitude from police and prosecutors where the victims can be made to feel like criminals and few special procedures for taking testimony from minors.

The prosecutors office, which did not seek the maximum punishment for Cho, apologised to Na-young's family for questioning her five times about her ordeal because it failed to properly record interviews.

The prosecutors office did not respond to several attempts by Reuters to seek comments on the case.

The Korean Bar Association has launched a committee to look into how prosecutors handled the case.

Rights groups have complained that the country is out of step with the rest of the developed world and does not do enough to punish those guilty of sex crimes, with convicted rapists often sentenced to just a few years in jail.

Lawmakers will try to put their words into action in the current session of parliament that finishes at the end of the year by increasing penalties for the sexual abuse of children and setting a new system to inform residents that a sexual predator has moved into their neighbourhood.

"The children who are the victims of these horrendous crimes should be given constant and long-term care," said Oh Sun-young, of the children's rights group, Save the Children.

Na-young is suffering from depression and has a difficult road ahead of her, said Shin.

"She's a beautiful and smart child," said Shin. "She has always tried to do her best and to look out for herself."

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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