'Don't kill yourself', Kim Jong Un tells North Koreans

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued an order to local authorities banning suicides as data showed numbers skyrocketing, according to government officials who spoke to Radio Free Asia.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued an order to local authorities banning suicides as data showed numbers skyrocketing, according to government officials who spoke to Radio Free Asia. The exact figures were not revealed as a shroud of secrecy covers Pyongyang's data. But South Korean intelligence intelligence estimated in May that suicides in North Korea had increased by about 40% from the previous year.

In the directive, Kim Jong Un called suicide an "act of treason against socialism" stating that local government officials would be held jointly accountable for failing to prevent people from killing themselves in their jurisdiction, the report claimed.