South Korean Suicidal Persons Locked In Coffins For 'Death Experience'

A strange "death experience" school, Hyowon Healing Center, has been started in South Korea, as a reaction to the mounting suicide rate in South Korea.

There are 40 suicides everyday, according to First To Know.

South Korea faces the second highest suicide rates in the world. A government survey in April pointed out that the top cause of death among South Korean youth is suicide. Young students aged between 9 to 24 have to go through a higher suicide rate than earlier, a decade ago.

It is a worrying issue in the "extremely competitive society" of South Korea, in which adults as well as aged people face financial stress, while the young face the pressure to show success and achievement, reports United Press International.

The purpose of the center is to explain to the students that their problems are all part of life, and they must therefore take them in their stride, and look at the brighter side of things, instead of running away from adversities.

Jeong Yong-mun, the head of the school and a former funeral company employee, has come up with a novel idea in order to teach everyone the value of life. He is hoping that students who are depressed will be able to give life more importance and value if they undergo the experience of being dead for a day, according to The Daily Mail U.K.

Hence, there is a final drill that the students have to go through. They have to be seated between rows of coffins, draw up and sign fake wills, after which they are locked up inside coffins, and go through "mock funeral services".

The students of the school include some who find it difficult to manage the stress of writing exams, parents who feel "useless" and sidelined by their children when they find jobs and move away, and older people who feel that they are a burden on young families.