Suicides in Korean entertainment scene: 5 celebs who took their own lives

So Jin, a DSP Media trainee and member of girl group Baby Kara, was found unconscious in a garden of an apartment building in her home city of Daejeon on Tuesday. Korean Entertainment agency DSP Media confirmed that the 22-year-old's death was from an apparent suicide.

So Jin is the latest in the list of celebrities in the Korean entertainment industry who have taken their own lives.

Here are five others.


1. Park Yong Ha


-- PHOTO: ST FILE

An established Korean actor and singer, Park committed suicide at the age of 32.

Before his death, he had split up with his manager and was under a lot of stress from managing his own affairs, reported South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.

He faced more pressure after his father was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, according to his acquaintances.

Police said that Park suffocated after hanging himself on his bedpost with an electrical cord. His mother found his body in his room in Seoul at around 5.30am on June 30, 2010.

Watch Park perform "Will Be There" live in concert here.

2. Daul Kim


-- PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA

Kim was an international Korean model who had worked alongside top designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Alexander McQueen. She appeared on magazines like British Vogue and Dazed & Confused, and made her international catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week in 2007.

But behind the glitz and glamour of the runway, Kim was an insecure, lonely and depressed figure who never felt a sense of belonging.

The 20-year-old was found hanged in her central Paris apartment on Nov 19, 2009.

Watch an interview of Park in New York City here.

3. Jeong Da Bin


-- PHOTO: SBS

Jeong, a Korean actress best known for her work in the television series Rooftop Room Cat, was found hanged with a bath towel in the bathroom of her boyfriend's apartment in southern Seoul on Feb 10, 2007.

The 26-year-old suffered from depression over the lack of work, her boyfriend told journalists.

Watch Jeong in Rooftop Room Cat here.

4. Jang Ja Yeon

-- PHOTO: ASIANWIKI

Jang Ja Yeon was a Korean actress who stared in the popular KBS television drama series Boys Over Flowers.

The 29-year-old wrote a series of suicide letters explaining how her former agency head Kim Sung Hun had forced her to meet influential figures at parties where she was expected to provide sexual favours for some of them.

"I was called to a bar and pressured to accept a request for a sexual relationship," she reportedly wrote.

Police said Jang's older sister found her hanging on the banister of a staircase in their house in South Korea's Gyeonggi province on March 7, 2009, and told police that her sister suffered from depression.

Watch Yeon's last interview here.

5. Choi Jin Sil

-- PHOTO: ASIAN WIKI

Choi a popular actress who stared in several Korean box-office hits, including My Love, My Bridge (1990) and How To Top My Wife (1994), was found dead in her Seoul apartment on Oct 2, 2008.

She was found with an elastic band around her neck tied to a shower stall, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting the police.

Although no formal suicide note was found, Choi, 39, a divorced mother of two, had sent her make-up assistant messages asking her to "take care of my children no matter what happens" and telling her that "I'm sorry".

Choi was said to have been upset over rumours on the Internet that she had lent a large sum of money to actor Ahn Jae Hwan, 36.

Watch Choi on "The Guru Show" here.

pamchan@sph.com.sg

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