[Exclusive] Lee Jae Myung Campaign Considers Pledge for Senior Secretary for Suicide Prevention in Presidential Office

Establishing a Presidential Department Dedicated to Suicide Prevention
Overcoming the Shame of Having the Highest Suicide Rate Among OECD Countries
Intensive Management of High-Risk Groups by Local Governments

The central election campaign committee for Lee Jae Myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, is considering pledging to establish a Senior Secretary for Suicide Prevention in the presidential office and to create a presidential department dedicated to suicide prevention for the June 3 presidential election. The government plans to launch a comprehensive initiative to shed the stigma of having the highest suicide rate among OECD member countries.

Lee Jae Myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, is preparing for the first round of the 21st presidential election candidate debate held at the SBS Prism Center studio in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 18th. Photo by Yonhap News

A key official from the Democratic Party's election campaign committee told Asia Economy on the 19th, "We need to appoint a Senior Secretary for Suicide Prevention and implement suicide prevention policies in all directions," adding, "We are preparing a plan to have a department within the presidential office dedicated to suicide prevention, and to assign suicide prevention psychological counselors in each local government to provide intensive management for high-risk groups."

The Democratic Party has put suicide prevention measures at the forefront because the suicide rate continues to worsen. The official explained, "With our country's birth rate at 0.7, if the number of people dying by suicide remains high, what will happen to Korea?" He added, "Korea has remained number one in suicide rates among OECD countries, and since the situation has not improved, the Pyeonsanism Committee delivered this as a policy pledge to the policy headquarters."

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration announced an innovation plan for mental health policy in 2023, setting a goal to halve the suicide rate within 10 years compared to 2022, but failed to achieve results. Last year, the number of people who died by suicide reached the highest level in 13 years since 2011. According to the Korea Suicide Prevention Center and Statistics Korea, the provisional number of deaths due to intentional self-harm from January to December last year was 14,439. This means that nearly 39.5 people died by suicide each day over the year. The provisional number of suicide deaths last year was 461 (3.3%) higher than the finalized figure for the previous year, which was 13,978. This marks the second consecutive year of increase compared to the previous year, and it is the highest figure since 2011, when the number of suicides reached an all-time high of 15,906.

The suicide rate, defined as the number of suicides per 100,000 people, is estimated at 28.3 (based on the 2024 resident registration population), marking the highest level in 11 years since 2013, when it was 28.5. Korea's annual number of suicides exceeded 15,000 for three consecutive years in 2009 (15,412), 2010 (15,566), and 2011 (15,906), but fell to the 14,000 range in 2012 and 2013. In 2017 (12,463) and 2022 (12,906), the number dropped below 13,000. The suicide rate per 100,000 people, which exceeded 30 from 2009 to 2011, declined to 24.3 in 2017 and 25.2 in 2022, but then rose again for two consecutive years in 2023 and 2024.

Lee Jae Myung's suicide prevention pledge is considered to have been strengthened compared to the previous presidential election. Reviewing the policy booklet for the 20th presidential election, the only measure presented for stabilizing people's livelihoods was the establishment of a mental health crisis response system through 24-hour consultations with specialists. The previous pledges included a 24-hour hotline consultation system with specialists jointly operated by the public and private sectors, automatic linkage of high-risk groups identified through the hotline to local governments, suicide prevention centers, and private organizations, and expansion of dedicated staff at the National Center for Mental Health and five national psychiatric hospitals.

If you are experiencing depression or other difficult concerns, or if you have family or acquaintances facing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour professional counseling through the suicide prevention hotline at ☎109 or the suicide prevention SNS counseling service "Madeulran".