North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has issued a secret order to local authorities asking them to prevent suicides after data showed a rise in the number of people taking their own lives this year, government officials told Radio Free Asia.
Although the FRG was unable to confirm the number of suicides in North Korea, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported in late May that suicides had increased by about 40 percent compared to last year.
“There are a lot of internal factors in North Korea, especially the difficulties people are going through,” the spy agency said, adding that violent crime is also on the rise as people struggle to survive.
Kim officially defined the suicide as “an act of treason against socialism” and ordered local governments to take preventive measures.
The confidential suicide prevention order was passed at emergency meetings in each province of party committee leaders at the provincial, city and county levels, an official from the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told the Korean Service of the FRG, subject anonymity.
“Our meeting was held at the party committee building located in Pohang District, Chongjin City,” he said. “The high number of suicide cases in the province was revealed and some officials … could not hide their concerns.”
Statistics presented at the North Hamgyong meeting showed there were 35 suicide cases this year in Chongjin and Kyongsong alone, the official said, adding that most of the cases involved entire families ending their lives together.
„[Participanții] they were shocked to learn that those who committed suicide were criticizing the country and the social system,” he said.
At the meeting in Ryanggang province, participants were told that the suicides had a greater social impact than the famine, another official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Despite the suicide prevention policy ratified by the secretary-general, officials have failed to come up with an adequate solution,” he said. “Most of the suicides were caused by severe poverty and starvation, so no one can come up with a countermeasure at this point.”
The meeting described several shocking cases in detail, according to the official.
“In Hyesan City, a 10-year-old boy was living with his grandmother after his parents starved to death but took their own lives by eating rat poison,” he said.
The official described other shocking cases revealed at the meeting, including a couple in their 60s. The two hanged themselves from a tree in the mountains and a family of four who, after eating their last meal together, ingested cyanide, a highly toxic chemical.
“Suicide in the family is a final act of defiance against a hopeless system,” he said.
Kim Jong Un’s order stressed that local government officials must take responsibility for preventing suicides in their jurisdictions.
It stressed that the officials responsible will be held jointly accountable, as “suicide is a clear social challenge and a betrayal against the country”.
Editor : R.K.
