Seoul  - A court in South Korea has ordered a Seoul hospital to pay a woman 70 million won (56,000 dollars) in damages because her baby was accidentally switched with another newborn 17 years ago, a media report said on Monday.

Since the mix-up in Kuri near Seoul in 1992 the woman has brought up another girl as her own, The Korea Herald said.

The Seoul court heard that a nurse accidentally swapped the babies.

The newspaper quoted the judge as saying that the hospital had a duty to make sure that each baby was given to the right parents.

The court ordered the hospital to pay the woman damages for the emotional distress the mix-up had caused her.

The mistake came to light a year ago when blood tests revealed the girl was group A but her parents were group B.

The woman's natural child has yet to be traced.(dpa)