Korea's suicide deaths fall for 10th straight month, health ministry says

South Korea's suicide deaths fell 9.8 percent in July from a year earlier to 1,062, the health ministry said Tuesday, extending a decline that began in October 2025 and has now run for 10 consecutive months.

For all of 2025, 14,144 people died by suicide, 728 fewer than the previous year, a drop of 4.9 percent. The ministry released the figures at the ninth meeting of its public-private council on life-respect policy, held at the Samjung Hotel in Seoul's Gangnam district.

The council brings together government ministries and outside groups that work on prevention, and the ministry used the session to discuss the sixth basic plan for suicide prevention, which covers 2026 through 2030. Forty-three institutions take part, including six government ministries and agencies and representatives of religious, business, labor, media and academic groups. Thirty representatives attended Tuesday's meeting, according to the ministry. The council has been convened under the suicide prevention law since 2018 and is co-chaired by Health Minister Jung Eun-kyung and Choi Jong-soo, the head of Sungkyunkwan University's Confucian tradition office.

Even with the recent decline, Korea still has the highest suicide rate among OECD countries.

The ministry said the sixth plan aims to build a social safety net in which not only the national and local governments but also private organizations and local communities take part in protecting life.

Much of Tuesday's session was given over to members describing their own work. Religious groups have run worship services for the families of people who died by suicide, along with temple stays and counseling centers. Business and labor groups held suicide prevention week campaigns and ran psychological support programs and retreats for workers. News organizations reported on their adherence to suicide reporting guidelines and held seminars for reporters who cover such cases. Academics organized therapeutic theater and grief programs.

"Suicide prevention and respect for life cannot be achieved by government effort alone; they are tasks that every member of our society must take responsibility for and practice," Second Vice Health Minister Lee Hyung-hoon said in remarks at the meeting.

The ministry said it will strengthen cooperation between the public and private sectors to turn the recent decline in deaths into a lasting change. "It is important for the government and the private sector to work closely together and actively use the expertise and resources of each field," Lee said, adding that the views raised at the meeting would be reflected in policy.