Shin, E.H.; Kang, D.Y., and Lee, J., 2017. Analysis and international comparison of drowning in South Korea. In: Lee, J.L.; Griffiths, T.; Lotan, A.; Suh, K.-S., and Lee, J. (eds.), The 2nd International Water Safety Symposium. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 79, pp. 21–25. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

From WHO (World Health Organization), drowning is the third leading cause of accidental death in the world. The number of drowning around the world is collected from the lifesaving organizations through ILS (International Lifesaving Federation) based on the statistics office in the nations. The cause of death is categorized by international and/or national code of disease and most of nations comply with the codes however some of LMICs (Low Middle Income Country) manually count the drowning by accidents reported in the newspapers. After Sewolho ferry wreck in 2014, which brought about 300 drowning in South Korea, more attention has been drawn to water safety but there has been no statistical data in accordance with international guideline in South Korea. Korean Coast Guard and National Emergency Management Agency make annual report of drowning accidents, which states that the annual drowning is about 30 but it is far away from the actual number around 700 drownings from National Statistics Office in South Korea. This study is designed to provide realistic numbers of drwonings to establish national water safety and drowning prevention strategy. Numbers of drowning from 2008 to 2012 is collected from National Statics Office based on KCD (Korea Classification of Disease) and it is analysed by gender, age, place and etc. Also the characteristics of drowning accidents is compared to the international ones.