Suicide Epidemic in South Korea

991 Words2 Pages

Among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development signed countries, South Korea leads with the highest rate of suicide. More than fourteen thousand South Koreans took their own lives in 2012 (Brown). During the years 2009 and 2010, a total of nearly thirty thousand people committed suicide. These thousands of suicides are often caused by issues within the social structure, almost unreachable standards of South Korea and other miseries. South Korea’s people consider suicide a growing and major problem of their society and culture and take many initiatives to aid in the possible saving of many lives. Laws and regulations have been passed to restrict and decrease suicide possibilities and results. The country has taken several actions to reduce the number of suicides the nation experiences. However, South Korea’s strict social attitude and structure is the root of the country’s nation-wide epidemic of suicide.
A societal competition in South Korea has enticed a widespread choosing of the most tragic last resort – suicide. Despite their rapidly growing economy, South Koreans are continuously pitting themselves against each other for social- and economic-related reasons. These factors are something citizens of the nation deliberately allow themselves to become obsessed with. Being ‘better than another’ and ‘achieving more success than another’ is especially important in the male gender who commit more suicide than females (Victoria). Not reaching a certain amount of success or falling into debt are characteristics one can inherit that can ultimately lead to a dangerous and lethal result. South Korea also has the highest number of female suicides in the world. One of the many reasons is suspected to be the alleged “imposs...

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