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Three men and two women who allegedly met on a suicide Web site took their lives Monday night in a motel room in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province. The victims, who were all in their twenties, were later identified as Lee, Park, Min, Song and Moon. In the room a half a bottle of potassium cyanide was found along with bottles of beer, soju and soft drinks.
In Lee's four-page will he wrote, ¡°I am about to end my life in this world. I regret that I continued living, and I feel sorry for my family. Several people I have met on the suicide Web site cheated me by taking my money saying they would get poison for me. Because of this, I have debts of about W3 million on my credit card.¡±
The police found a receipt inside Min¡¯s jacket totaling W17,000 for the poison purchased at a chemical shop in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province. Inferring that the five did not previously know each other, the police are tracking down their Internet IP addresses and mobile phone call lists to determine whether the five met through an Internet suicide site.
Although there are many people offering drugs, poison and even ways to commit suicide online, police said that such individuals could not be charged in the suicidal acts of others since proving a connection is difficult.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the National Police Agency said that it has taken measures to close down all Korean suicide Web sites and to eliminate the word ¡°suicide¡± in the search engines of Internet portal sites.
Police also allege that people planning suicide misuse suicide prevention Web sites by exchanging information there.
One such site is called ¡°Suicidal Urge Counsel Club,¡± which lends an ear to people who are contemplating suicide. Although this cafe constantly deletes illegal notices on its Web bulletin board, messages selling poison are constantly being uploaded and hundreds of Internet users click on and read such messages.
Ha Sang-hun, who heads the organization Life Line, said that when a person feels the urge to commit suicide, that person continually weighs life and death. He added that if the person meets another person wanting to kill himself, both quickly lose objectivity and carry out their plan. Ha said that access to suicide Web sites should be banned.
(Chang Sung-jin, dudmie@chosun.com )
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