Korea was a vassal slave state of Japan for decades. They tried to completely exterminate Korean culture, language, and even names. Koreans raised up and overthrew their occupiers. They formed citizen councils to establish a democracy in their country. The Soviets respected their councils and kept them. The Americans said absolutely not, destroyed them, and placed them under a racist, fascist military dictatorship run by the USA.

Suicide being popular in the south is hardly surprising.