Death of K-pop star a glaring symptom
SEOUL, South Korea — In recent years, South Korea has earned global recognition for its glossy and youthful music industry, known as K-pop.
At the same time, the country has grappled with a much more ignominious distinction: Its suicide rate is the highest in the industrialized world. These contrasting facets of South Korea’s identity collided this week with the apparent death by suicide of one of the nation’s most-famous K-pop stars, Kim Jonghyun, who used the mononym Jonghyun.
The singer, songwriter, producer and member of the boy band SHINee was found unconscious Monday in a multi-family building in Seoul’s Gangnam district, a neighborhood made famous internationally by fellow Kpop star PSY. Authorities found burned coal briquettes, which produce carbon monoxide, in a frying pan in the room, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Jonghyun’s death, which shocked and saddened fans worldwide, is one prominent example of South Korea’s alarming suicide mortality rate, which two years ago surpassed all but nine countries worldwide.
South Korea’s rate also leads all nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 35 industrialized countries that includes the United States, Japan and Germany. In 2015, South Korea reported 13,500 suicides, or about 37 per day. Suicides were the second-leading cause of death by injury, after vehicle accidents, according to the World Health Organization.
A musician friend of Jonghyun’s posted a note on Instagram that she described as his suicide note. The writer of the undated note speaks of suffering from depression, questions whether he was cut out for fame, and says, “No one alive is more tormented nor weaker than myself.”