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Age
In sharp contrast to high suicide rates in younger ages in other countries, Korea has a particularly high suicide rate in the 65 or above age group. In UK, the suicide rates cut down significantly as the age group gets older, but the elderly suicide rate ranks the highest among age-specific suicide rates in South Korea.

Gender
On average, men have suicide rate that is twice as high as women’s. However, suicide attempt rate is higher for women than men. Because men use more severe and lethal suicide methods, men have higher suicidal completion rate than women. The Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (RRRS), which measures the lethality of the suicidal method by gauging ratio between 5 risk and 5 rescue factors, averaged out to be 37.18 for men and 34.00 for women. This can translate to the fact that women attempt to commit suicide more as a demonstration, while men commit suicide with a determined purpose. However, compared to other OEDC countries, South Korea’s women suicide rate marks the first on the list for 15.0 deaths per 1000,000 deaths, and men suicide rate marks third for 32.5 per every 100,000 deaths. Women also had a higher increase of proportional suicide rate over men between 1986 and 2005. Men increased by 244%, while women increased by 282%.

Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic status is measured by a population’s level of education, degree of urbanity and deprivation of the residence. Given these standards, lower education, rural residence, and area deprivation is often associated with higher suicidal rate. The economic hardship factor is noted as the most frequently referred cause for elderly deaths. As 71.4% of elderly population is uneducated and 37.1% of them live in rural areas, they are more likely to face economic hardship, which led to health problems and family conflicts. All these factors together led to increase in suicidal ideation and completion.

Regions
Kangwon rates highest suicide rate by 37.84%. Chungnam and Jeonbuk follow after Kangwon. Ulsan, Kangwon, and Inchon have the highest suicide rate for age above 65. Daegu has the highest suicide rate for age ranging from 40-59. Finally, Kangwon, Jeonnam, and Chungnam have highest suicide rate for age of 20-39.

Methods
Because Korea restricts firearms, only one third of Korean women use violent methods to commit suicide. Poisoning is the most commonly used method, as half of Korean women uses pesticides to commit suicide. 58.3% of suicide from 1996 to 2005 used pesticide poisoning. Another prevalent method is hanging.

Media
According to a study, Korea experiences a surge of suicide rates after deaths of celebrities. A study found three out of eleven cases of celebrity suicide resulted in higher suicidal rate of the population. The study eliminated the potential effects of confounding factors, such as seasonality, and unemployment rates, yet the trend of increased suicidal rate persisted for nine weeks following celebrity suicides. The degree of media coverage of celebrity suicides impacted the degree of increase of suicide rates. The three celebrity suicides led to a surge in suicide rates because of their wide media coverage, and the other celebrity suicides not so much because of their low media coverage. In addition to the increased suicidal ideation, celebrity suicides lead people even to use the same methods. Following Lee’s death, more people used the same method of hanging as a result.

An ongoing study also suggests that high use of the Internet may cause suicides. Among 1573 high school students, 1.6% of the population suffered from Internet addiction and 38.0% had a risk of Internet addiction. These students had a stronger suicide ideation compared to those without Internet addiction.

Family
Many people are left orphaned or have lost a parent due to the Korean War. Within a random group of 12,532 adults, 18.6% of the respondents have lost their biological parent(s), and maternal death has a bigger impact to the rate of suicidal attempt than paternal death. Men have highest suicidal attempt rate when they experience maternal death in the ages of 0-4 and 5-9, while women had the highest suicidal attempt rate when they experience maternal death in the ages of 5-9.

Economy
An economic crisis hit Korea around 1977 to 1998 that led to the south/east Asian countries’ economic downfall. Such downfall in 1988 is shown to have a strong correlation with an increase in suicide rates, along with a rise of unemployment and divorce rates. In 1988, Korea experienced a sharp recession of -6.9% and a surge of unemployment rate to 7.0%. According to Durkheim, economic downfall disturbs the social standing of an individual, meaning that the individual’s demands and expectations would no longer be met. Thus, the person who cannot readjust to the deprived social order caused by economic downfall is more likely to commit suicide. Moreover, increase in unemployment and higher divorce rate during the economic downturn lead to depression, which is a common factor that leads to suicide.

Education
In Korea, every student is obligated to take the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in order to be eligible to apply to college. Because majority of parents strive their children to enter the top institutions, “the national obsession that revolves around higher education is focused on getting a near perfect score on the CSAT, along with having top grades in school.” In other words, the pressure to do well on this exam is stringent on both parents and students. For example, parents “micro-manage every hour that could be spent studying, whether a weekend or holiday”. Moreover, parents offer bribes to teachers to look preferably on their children, as the statistics show that 27% of teachers have accepted bribes. With the social pressure to do well in the test upon students, they choose the option of suicide. According to the National Statistical Office, 1,000 students between the ages of 10 and 19 committed suicide from 2000 to 2003. In addition, Korea Teachers and Educational Workers Union and Korea Youth Counseling Institute’s surveys have shown that 43% to 48% of students had the suicide ideation.

Responses
Korea has implemented the Strategies to Prevent Suicide (STOPS), a project which “initiatives aimed at increasing public awareness, improving media reporting of suicide, screening for persons at high risk of suicide, restricting access to means, and improving treatment of suicidally depressed patients”. All of these methods strive to increase public awareness and governmental support for suicide prevention.

Because the portrayal of suicide in TV and media coverage of suicides influence the suicide rate, the government has “promulgated national guidelines for reporting on suicide in print media”. The national guideline helps the media coverage to focus more on warning signs and possibilities of treatment, rather than factors that lead to the suicide.

Another method that South Korea has implemented is educating gatekeepers. The Korean government educates gatekeepers within the at-risk communities, such as female elders or low-income families. The gatekeeper education primarily consists of knowledge of suicide and dealing with suicidal individuals, and this education is provided to teachers, social workers, volunteers and youth leaders. To maximize its effect, the government has also implemented evaluation programs to report the results.

Physical measures are also taken to prevent suicide. The government has reduced “access to lethal means of self-harm”. As mentioned in the methods, the government has reduced access to poisoning agents, monoxide from charcoal, and finally train platforms. This helps to decrease the impulsive suicidal behavior.