By Kim Do-yeun
In an article published on its website Tuesday, the BBC threw the spotlight on South Korea’s 40 daily suicides, reporting on what is perhaps one of the biggest social problems that plague the country.
“South Korea is now the world's 12th largest economy. … And yet people here seem less happy than during the years of hardship after the Korean War(1950-53),” the article said.
The Korean government revealed that the current suicide rate is five times higher than that of the previous generation, which saw the country through the turmoil of war and economic hardship.
The issue has only recently been officially recognized by the government, and the sources in BBC’s article suggested that proper prevention and social support were late in coming. They depicted a society that tends to blame victims of depression for their own misfortunes.
Dr. Hong Kang-ee, a psychologist, pointed to the severe pressures that Koreans face every day from a very early age, saying that parents have increasingly drilled the importance of money and success into their children’s heads over the past 40 years. Those who don’t “make the cut” are often shunned by their own parents.
While Korean parents have recently braved the taboo of consulting psychologists, Dr. Hong said that they now come to her for the wrong reasons: They want their children to work harder and want them to be treated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The government has begun to invest in initiatives to raise awareness and buckle down the increasing suicide rate, but the issue is seen as a “deep-rooted” problem that is not readily tractable.
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