

By Kim Hyun-bin



Korea's high suicide rate has become a serious societal issue with a study showing that around 5 percent of the population have contemplated killing themselves in the last year. Experts are calling for the government to come up with stronger suicide prevention policies to tackle the problem.



According to the Statistics Korea's 2018 Societal Investigation Report, 5.1 percent of respondents said they had contemplated suicide, with most blaming financial hardship for their extreme thoughts.



However, for teenagers getting good grades and the university entrance procedure was the top reason.



Out of these, one out of three cited grades and excessive studying as the main cause.



Among those aged between 13 and 19, 4.4 percent had suicidal tendencies ― 35.6 percent of these were struggling with getting grades and college admission; 14.5 percent pointed to financial issues and 14 percent cited family problems.



Over 49 percent of the young people talked with friends or colleagues about their problems, while 28 percent talked to their parents and 13.8 percent tried to handle their stress alone.



People in their 20s to 50s picked financial troubles as the reason for suicidal thoughts, while most people over 60 picked suffering from illness and physical debilitation.



Among all age groups, financial problems were the main reason for suicidal thoughts, followed by illness and physical debilitation for men at 16.7 percent; and for women, domestic troubles with 17.2 percent.



Korea's suicide has exceed that of all 35 OECD member nations for 14 years, and criticism has been raised that the government is not doing enough for suicide prevention.



"Korea's suicide prevention budget is 1/80th of that of Japan," Bareunmirae Party lawmaker Choi Do-ja said during a Special Committee on Budget and Accounts audit.



According to Choi, there were 13,092 suicides in the country in 2016 ― an average of 37 people a day ― which was two-and-a-half times the OECD average.



Japan also suffered from a high suicide rate, however, the Japanese government invested heavily to combat this.



Last year, Japan allocated 751 billion won ($670 million) from its annual budget for suicide prevention, 80 times that of Korea, which only invested 9.9 billion won. Japan's per capita gross domestic product is 1.2 times higher than Korea, however, there suicide prevention budget per person is 18 times greater.



"According to Statistic Korea, suicide is the fifth leading cause of death behind, cancer, heart attacks, cerebrovascular disease and pneumonia," Choi said. "However, the money spent for suicide prevention is only 0.161 percent of the country's health budget. We need to drastically increase spending."



The suicide rate is the highest among developed nations despite declining in recent years, according to comparative statistics from various welfare authorities.



The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service analyzed the health data from the OECD.



In 2016, 25.8 out of 100,000 Koreans committed suicide, well above the OECD average of 11.6.

Latvia and Slovenia were next behind Korea with 18.1, followed by Japan with 16.6, Hungary at 16.2 and Belgium, 15.8.

Turkey recorded the lowest at 2.1.



Suicide rate in OECD countries has been steadily falling since 1985, but for Korea the number started to climb from 2000, although it dropped slightly in 2010.



To better address the issue, the government launched an inter-ministerial action plan in January to try and lower the suicide rate to 17 out of 100,000 by 2022.

