There may be one category in which industrialized South Korea may trail its poorer Northern neighbor, but this is a distinction North Korea is not likely to boast of.

According to Preventing Suicide: A Global Imperative, released by the World Health Organization, North Korea topped the list of suicide rates among the 170-plus nations surveyed. This is hardly any comfort for South Korea, which finished second and whose suicide rate still tops the developed world.

The report listed the total number of suicides in North Korea for 2012 at 9,790.  If true – the report said that its methodology