Two soldiers found dead in apparent joint suicide

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) -- Two off-duty private soldiers apparently committed
suicide together by swallowing a herbicide at an inn outside their base in
southern South Korea over the weekend, an Army official said Monday.

The incident reported in the city of Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, took
place around noon Saturday, the official said, speaking on customary condition of
anonymity.
No suicide note was found alongside the soldiers who had met each other at a
training facility after their enlistment.
"They had been classified as soldiers having trouble adapting to life in the
military," the official said, adding a further investigation into the motive
behind their apparent suicide is needed.
All able-bodied South Korean men must serve in the armed forces or undertake
equivalent tasks for the state for at least two years. South Korea has the third
highest rate of suicide among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, or OECD.
The official ruled out the possibility of the soldiers being affiliated with a
so-called Internet suicide community before they killed themselves. Such Web
sites, where strangers negotiate a suicide agreement, have recently emerged as a
social problem.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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