40 people committed suicide daily in 2009

[stopthedisco.livejournal.com]

Nearly 40 people committed suicide daily last year, up from 35 in 2008, according to the National Police Agency Wednesday.

A total of 14,579 people took their own lives in 2009, up 18.8 percent from 12,270 the previous year.

By age group, those aged 60 and above comprised 4,614 or 32 percent of the total suicides ― indicating that more senior citizens are at risk ― followed by people in their 40s at 2,770 or 19 percent.

Though people in their 20s made up only 12 percent at 1,749, this represented a jump of 29 percent from 2008, and 35 percent over the last three years.

Around 28 percent of suicides took their own lives due to psychological problems, followed by 22 percent because of physical illness. Economic, domestic and love issues were next in the top five reasons.

"Statistics show suicides are rising sharply nationwide, though it's hard to pinpoint a single reason for the increase. Society as a whole should make greater efforts to stop people killing themselves," a police officer said.

News of people committing suicide comes out almost every day. On Monday, a man in his 40s and his 6-year-old son were found dead in his room in Goseong, Gangwon Province, in what is seen as an apparent murder/suicide, police said.

They had died from inhaling toxic gas from burnt coal briquettes in a sealed room. The man left a suicide note, saying: "I don't want to live anymore."

On May 12, a total of eight bodies were found in apparent group suicides in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province and Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

Three men were found in an inn with burnt briquettes in a sealed room. The other four women and a man burned briquettes inside a car. Police suspect they plotted their deaths through Web sites encouraging suicide.

Korea has the top suicide rate among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

As of 2008, 24.3 people out of 100,000 killed themselves, about 10 times the 2.5 out of 100,000 for Greece. Korea was the only country with more than 20 suicides per 100,000 people.

Source: meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr

Comments

[extraenchanted.livejournal.com]

Wow. I thought Japan has the top suicide rate. Apparently Korea beat Japan.

[angel-9-lives.livejournal.com]

mte. o.O

~Angel

[louta.livejournal.com]

well, fuck.

[nlovers.livejournal.com]

eloquently said!

[love-flag.livejournal.com]

:/

[lilipute.livejournal.com]

Why the hell would you kill your kid just because YOU don't want to live anymore?
People need to think about others sometimes.
And making others clean up the mess.
I just think it's a waste. -_-

[carmendove.livejournal.com]

Why the hell would you kill your kid just because YOU don't want to live anymore?

This whole article is disturbing but that part made me sick to my stomach.
I don't even have the words to rage and scream. Fucking bastard.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Wow. :/ That's.... I can understand the will of ending your life but passing to the act... It's also probably a domino effect. The more you ear about suicide, the more it seems a "normal" way.

[howla.livejournal.com]

Lol, i love how your icon matches your comment

[love-flag.livejournal.com]

wow so korea really 'beat' japan?

[ramunerain.livejournal.com]

Police suspect they plotted their deaths through Web sites encouraging suicide.
there are such websites? ):

those numbers are huge. fuck.

[carmendove.livejournal.com]

There are some sick bastards in this world:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7107061.ece

And that's from the US so I can't even imagine what's going on in Korea...

[eatingthepie.livejournal.com]

):

[walnuuut.livejournal.com]

Suicide is just really really sad.
/stating the obvious

[miyumiyuxxx.livejournal.com]

I guess the origin of the problem can be South Korea's quick rise from one of the poorest countries in the world to on the richest. In a matter of decades they went from as poor as sub-Saharan Africa to a world player. In other countries it took centuries to develop - look at Europe for instance. But with this rise comes great pressure, and it's unfortunate that these people are turning to suicide to solve their problems. I hope the government realizes this and tries to maximize help that these people can get, and arrest those sick bastards who are encouraging suicide. Just thinking about it makes me sick.

[bumie.livejournal.com]

so wrong

[uchuu-kita.livejournal.com]

There's hardly any mental health counselling here. Admitting to being depressed/suicidal just isn't seen as a socially acceptable option for a lot of people. Many turn to drink (since the drinking culture here is also prevalent.) and some go down this tragic route.

[elizajet.livejournal.com]

This. It's not acceptable to get counselled, be on antidepressants or anything along those lines.

[izon-no-niwa.livejournal.com]

They have some of the scariest horror movies, is that something to wonder... :(

[dominique-franc.livejournal.com]

Damn.

[say-o-kay.livejournal.com]

A Korean girl once told me a lot of students kill themselves a LOT 'cause of the stress as well. : ( I don't think that's just in Korea either.

[nzpnkrckrgrl.livejournal.com]

A recent news from New Zealand.

A korean woman living in South Island commited murder/suicide with her 2 children because she has pyschological paranoia fear of police.
This is all cause by the next door neighbour knocking on her door telling her food stinks and if she does it again they'll call the police.

[iruka92.livejournal.com]

um, daily? D:

[weerainbow.livejournal.com]

Every line of this is seriously sad news :(

[toshiya.livejournal.com]

wait... 40, daily?!
holy shit D:

[elizajet.livejournal.com]

This is sad but doesn't surprise me.

It's almost impossible to get help if you are depressed or paranoid or have any other mental health issue here, and it's completely socially not acceptable or seen as a shame to your family/yourself/etc. if you are.

We even had to take a day or two or rest (playing games, doing outdoor things) after exams to avoid students being suicidal.

[honeebs.livejournal.com]

don't kill your kids....

[nene718.livejournal.com]

It's a sad situation. Korean society has to change if they expect this to get any better. Lack of mental health care combined with strict social expectations leads to this.

[maple88.livejournal.com]

That's so incredibly sad.

I think Korea needs to change the way they view mental health. It's not shameful to go to the psychologist/psychiatrist. Geez, you don't have to advertise it, but it's a way of keeping a family happy and alive!

And they have to lower the pressure on everyone. I know they want to be (and are) economic world contenders, but good Lord, they need to chill a bit!

[minyquai.livejournal.com]

Especially regarding the fact that they separated psychological problems from economic, domestic and love issues .

The fuck.

[cynicalsnark.livejournal.com]

It's understandable that more senior citizens are at risk because statistically and sociologically they have less "pull" factors giving them a will to live. Some have very little to no family ties, no work etc. In addition to the whole "get over it" stance SK has with regards to mental health, the stress levels in Pacific Asian countries---Korea, Japan etc. must be enormous. Failures at work and school must weigh heavily on them, and essentially end up defining people. With that much pressure one can only assume suicide rates would go up.

So sad.