South Korea cancer death rates reach record high

Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Cancer is taking its toll in South Korea, where a record number of people died of the disease in 2017, according to Seoul's statistics office.

Nearly 80,000 people died of cancer last year, the highest number of deaths to be recorded since Seoul began to keep track of death statistics in 1983, the JoongAng Ilbo reported Wednesday.

Total deaths were also up -- 285,534 South Koreans died in 2017, up 1.7 percent from 2016.

Cancer also accounted for nearly 30 percent of all South Korean deaths, with lung, liver, stomach and pancreatic cancers the most prevalent forms of the disease.

The rise in cancer as a leading cause of death is due to South Korea's increasingly aging population, the statistics office said, because the majority of cancer deaths occur in those over 50 years of age.

South Korea's notoriously high suicide rate declined from 2016 to 2017 by 4.8 percent, according to Seoul.

A total of 12,243 people took their own lives in 2017, after ranking second highest in number of suicides in 2016, when Korea ranked behind Lithuania.

That year Lithuania reported 26.7 suicides per 100,000 people, while Korea reported 25.8.

Brain diseases were the cause of 8 percent of all South Korean deaths in 2017, according to Yonhap.

Death from dementia and Alzheimer's disease accounted for a tiny fraction in 2017, but more than 9,000 South Koreans died of the disease.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has sought to address the rising number of Alzheimer's patients with pledges to cut the cost of healthcare.

State health insurance will cover more of the costs so families pay less, Moon said in 2017.