North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered local authorities to prevent suicides amid reports of increase in people taking their own lives, a report has claimed.
A report in Radio Free Asia quoting South Korean National Intelligence Service said that suicide rates by the end of May were 40 percent more than the last year.
“There are a lot of internal unrest factors in North Korea due to the hardships of people,” the spy agency reportedly said.
Apart from suicides, the report further claimed that violent crimes are on the rise in North Korea as people struggle to make ends meet amid economic hardships.
The North Korean leader in an attempt to combat the problem has officially termed suicide as an “act of treason against socialism” and secretly issued an order to the local governments to take preventative measures.
The suicide prevention order was delivered to officials in emergency meetings in each province of the party committee leaders at the provincial, city and county levels, the report added.
“Our meeting was held at the provincial party committee’s building located in Pohang district, in the city of Chongjin,” an official reportedly said.
“The large number of suicide cases in the province was revealed and some officials … could not hide their anxious expressions,” he added.
The report said that there were 35 suicide cases this year this year in Chongjin and nearby Kyongsong county while in most of the cases the whole families ended their lives together.
In another case reported in the city of Hyesan, a 10-year-old boy living with his grandmother took their lives by eating rat poison. Ironically, the boy’s parents had also died of starvation.
“Most of the suicides were caused by severe poverty and starvation, so no one can come up with a countermeasure right now,” another official reportedly said.
The order by Kim Jong Un also stressed that the local government officials must take the responsibility for preventing suicides in their areas.
North Korea is grappling with food shortage and reduced food production. In May, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said North Korea would fall short of around 800,000 tons of rice this year due to droughts in the country.
Meanwhile, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea pointed out that around 42 percent of the population is malnourished due to food shortages.