Suicide is the second most cause of South Korean teenagers' deaths and nearly half of them jump to death from high-rise structures, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said Sunday.
The ministry said 233 of 937 teenagers that died in 2006 took their own lives, while 357 of them died of cancer. Seventy-six drowned to death and 44 had heart failure.
About 47 percent of those who committed suicide jumped from apartments and other high-rise structures, while 37 percent choked themselves to death, the ministry said, citing the statistics from the National Police Agency.
Nearly 12 percent of the under-20 population that killed themselves during 2004-2006 are believed to have had trouble at school, while 7 percent died due to troubled relations with their parents. Six percent had symptoms of depression before killing themselves.
