Suicide Discussions

This is one of the first columns I've read on the high rate of suicides in South Korea. It comes from Kang Kyung-hee of The Chosun Ilbo's news desk.

Kang is worried that the suicide rate here could reach an all-time high after the brother of an actress who committed suicide also killed himself.

From the story:

'The news should perhaps prompt Koreans to re-examine their belief that the country's history of overcoming challenges has made its people exceptionally strong.'

This comes on the heels of an article in Joongang Ilbo that lists South Korea as number one in suicides among countries in the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Kang lists her ideas of why suicide is so common here, and goes on to correctly call suicide a national mental health issue.

'The difficulty of making a living, unbearable stress, unsupportive families, vulnerability -- there are any number of reasons for suicide, but on a collective level, the situation has gone past the point where the blame can be sought only with individuals.'

Kang says "a number of indexes" rank Finland as number one, but the chart from the Joongang Ilbo shows otherwise. Either way, this country is still in the midst of an issue that needs to be fixed. At least Kang is coming out to publicly recognize it. So what's the next step?