Suicide-glorifying web cartoons and TV shows face crackdown in South Korea

By Oh Young-jin

Organising a suicide pact will be a crime in South Korea, while guidelines will discourage the producers of web cartoons or TV dramas from encouraging or glorifying suicide.

Military officers will now undergo a personality test twice a year instead of once now, and all soldiers will be required to have a suicide prevention education.

In addition, one million public servants will be trained to form a network aimed at suicide prevention.

South Korea’s cabinet endorsed these and other measures.

Their aim is to lower suicide rates by half in the next five years.