South Korea's suicide rate has now reached the highest among member countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to OECD health data released on Sunday.
South Korea's suicide rate reached 24.7 people per 100,000 as of 2005, the highest in the 30-nation OECD, dubbed the rich nations' club. It was followed by Hungary (22.6 persons), Japan (20.3 persons) and Belgium (18.4 persons).
As recently as 1982, the nation's suicide rate stood at merely 6.8 persons per 100,000, one of the lowest levels in the OECD, along with 2.3 for Mexico, 3.3 for Greece and 4.8 for Spain.
Since the 1980s, however, South Korea's suicide rates showed a steep increase, rising by an annual average of 5.01 percent, the data showed.