THE number of South Koreans who have attempted suicide or inflicted injury on themselves has doubled over the last five years.
A government lawmaker said the number of people who sought medical attention from either suicide attempts or self-harm, reached 9,828 in 2019.
Last year's numbers is nearly a two-fold increase from 4,947 in 2015, with most of the cases involving those aged between 9 and 24.
Parliament member Kang Byung-won of the ruling Democratic Party said that on average, 26.9 young South Koreans either attempt suicide or suffer self-inflicted injuries per day.
He cited data from the Health ministry, ahead of the ministry's annual parliamentary audit later this week.
According to a Yonhap news agency report, the reported number of young South Koreans who either tried to take their own lives or caused self-harm during the 2015 to 2019 period was 34,552 people.
"Extraordinary measures through pan-governmental efforts should be introduced in order to proactively seek out and identify adolescents at high risk of suicide and prevent self-harm attempts," Kang said.
According to a state-run statistics agency Statistics Korea report in April, suicide was the leading cause of death among young people in South Korea in 2018, with the suicide rate per 100,000 people aged between 9 and 24 reaching 9.1 two years ago.