page_title: Suicide in South Korea
section_title: Methods
hierarchical_section_title: Suicide in South Korea / Methods
caption_attribution_description: Seoul, looking over the river
context_page_description: Suicide in South Korea is the 10th highest in the world according to the World Health Organization, as well as the second highest suicide rate in the OECD after Lithuania. In 2012, suicide was the fourth-highest cause of death among South Koreans.
  The high suicide rates compared to other countries in the developed world is exacerbated by the large amount of suicide among the elderly. One factor of suicide among elderly South Koreans is due to the amount of widespread poverty among senior citizens in South Korea, with nearly half of the country's elderly population living below the poverty line. Combined with a poorly-funded social safety net for the elderly, this can result in them killing themselves not to be a financial burden on their families, since the old social structure where children looked after their parents has largely disappeared in the 21st century. As a result, people living in rural areas tend to have higher suicide rates. This is due to extremely high rates of elderly discrimination, especially when applying for jobs, with 85.7% of those in their 50s experiencing discrimination.
context_section_description: Because South Korean law heavily restricts firearms possession, only one third of South Korean women use violent methods to commit suicide. Poisoning is the most commonly used method for South Korean women, with pesticides accounting for half of suicide deaths among that population. 58.3% of suicides from 1996 to 2005 used pesticide poisoning. Another prevalent method by which South Koreans die by suicide is hanging. A study by Jeon et al. has shown a difference between the methods used by suicide attempters who did plan and did not plan their attempt. Unplanned suicide attempters tend to use chemical agents or failing three times more than planned suicide attempters.
  A study by Subin Park et al. states that a major reason for the general upward trend in the South Korean suicide rate from 2000 to 2011 was the increase in suicides by hanging. Throughout that time period, hanging grew to be perceived as more painless, socially acceptable, and accessible, and thus became a much more common method throughout the first decade of the 21st century.
caption: The Mapo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea has been nicknamed "Suicide Bridge" and "The Bridge of Death" due to its frequent usage as a suicide hotspot amidst South Korea's ongoing suicide epidemic.
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