The nation is on course to set a record for the fewest criminal cases in a postwar year, a tally of the first six months of 2020 released Thursday showed, as the novel coronavirus pandemic has apparently reduced the amount of street crime in the country.

Between January and June, police opened a total of 307,644 cases nationwide, down 15.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Police Agency.

The pace of decline was faster than in 2019, when the annual figure came to 748,559 and hit a postwar low for the fifth consecutive year.