There is a similar obsession with why celebrities kill themselves. South Korean society obsesses over celebrity divorces, with speculation about who is the “guilty party”. I get hate calls, texts and online comments daily. When Sulli was being criticised for posting “controversial” photos on social media, I said during a TV appearance that she was seeking the public’s understanding and affection, and that her critics should take the time to try to understand her. The Korean Association of Journalists’ guidelines advise reporters not to reveal the methods people use to take their own lives, or to mention the location and motive. Sulli died in October 2019 Photograph: Jo Yong hak/Reuters Attempting to explain each death would just encourage the trolls. We can’t pretend to know each motivation, whether it be money problems, relationships, family issues, declining popularity, online abuse, or any number of other factors. I can’t explain why so many South Korean entertainers have taken their own lives. The figures for 2019 have yet to be published, but everyone predicts South Korea will come top yet again. More South Koreans kill themselves than people in other OECD countries. I have reported on the scene for the past 30 years, covering 30 suicides, and I can say with absolute certainty that this is a problem for everyone in South Korean society. Suicide is not confined to South Korea’s entertainment industry, of course. I dread getting calls in the middle of the night in case it is to tell me about another suicide by a South Korean celebrity. Whatever change there has been has made matters worse. Sulli was found dead in October, Goo Hara in November and Cha In Ha in December. Six years later, little has changed, and there has been another spike in high-profile suicides. He had become the target of online abuse in the wake of Choi Jin-sil’s death. Three years later, in January 2013, Choi Jin-sil’s ex-husband and the father of their two children, the former baseball player Cho Seong-min, also took his own life. When I arrived at Choi’s funeral, her younger brother started hitting me, crying: “You promised to protect my sister! Why couldn’t you?” Two years later, in March 2010, he too killed himself. I found out about her death at 5am the next day from her younger brother, Choi Jin-young, an actor and singer.Ĭhoi Jin-Sil Photograph: Hee Chul Kim/WireImage “I want to campaign to stop them, retire from entertainment and do charity work, like Audrey Hepburn. I had heard her last words: “As the victim of internet hate I don’t think abusive comments should be allowed,” she had said. I and a few other people had been out drinking with her just four hours before she died. Forty days after Ahn killed himself, Choi took her own life. That actor was Choi Jin-sil, then one of the most in-demand women in the industry. People were looking for someone to blame for Ahn’s death, and she was the easiest target. The photos ran with the caption: “Actress in shock at not being able to get the money back from dead actor.” She and other people in the industry had loaned Ahn money but the media portrayed them as loan sharks. The waiting photographers caught all of this. She was in such a state of shock that she was unable to walk properly. On the day they found him, the actor and I went to the hospital where his body had been taken.
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