By Park Si-soo



A total of 114 primary and secondary students committed suicide last year, education ministry data showed on Wednesday. It was up from 108 in 2016 and 93 in 2015.



High school students made up the largest portion of 76, followed by middle school (33) and elementary school (five). Sixty-four were male while 50 were female.



By location, 29.8 percent of the suicides took place in Gyeonggi Province, followed by Seoul (17), Busan (10) and Daegu (10).



March and September were months most prone to suicides. Korean schools begin their new semester in the months. A total of 556 students killed themselves over the past five years (2013-17), 11.5 percent, or 64, in March and 10.1 percent (56) in September.



The three biggest presumed causes were domestic conflict (35 percent), depression (18.3 percent) and low academic achievement (12.1 percent).



