The Ministry of Defense on Sunday vowed to increase the application of psychological investigations after military suicides, as the military seeks to combat its biggest killer.
The military human rights task force is working on standardizing the process to address suicide in the barracks. Suicide accounted for 69.4 percent of the 722 deaths in the ranks between 2016 and September 2025, according to ministry data released in October.
The psychological post mortem investigations aim to evaluate whether a death was a suicide in cases where it is unclear, collecting information on the deceased through forensic examinations and health records, while conducting interviews to determine factors that led to their deaths.
It was implemented for the Korean military in 2008 but the procedure was applied to only 11 of 50 suicides in the military last year.
A standard procedure will provide guidelines for carrying out the process, and the military plans to develop measures specifically for such deaths of soldiers.
The scientific investigation center of the Criminal Investigation Command will be in charge of the psychological evalutations.
The military said it hopes the new process will allow a clearer picture of the cause of death, which will help establish preventive measures.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
