Constantly grim statistics on suicide

President Lee Jae Myung recently called the nation's suicide rate "a disgrace," saying there is "no greater disgrace in the world than this." He criticized weak intervention systems, insufficient staffing for suicide hotlines and the tendency to treat suicide as an individual problem rather than a national crisis. Tough talk, but will it make a difference? Koreans have heard serious presidential rhetoric about suicide before, and the country has continued to record the highest suicide rate among OECD countries. Let's take a walk down memory lane. In 1983, approximately 2,700 Koreans died by suicide, a rate of seven per 100,000 people (although numbers were probably uncounted then). During President Kim Young-sam's term (1993-98), 25,000 Koreans died by suicide, averaging around 5,000 deaths annually. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis broke the dam: Deaths jumped from roughly 6,022 in 1997 to 8,569 in 1998, a 42 percent increase in a single year. No administration has managed to return the country anywhere near the baseline it once held. President Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003), who inherited th