I know I'm like a ghost: a cry for help before dying

HENRY SAMUEL PARIS

November 22, 2009

Tragic end ... Daul Kim worked across the globe.

FANS and friends expressed shock yesterday at the death of a South Korean model who was found hanged in her central Paris apartment.

Daul Kim's friends remembered her talent and the difficulties she had trying to battle depression, swamping her internet home page with tributes after reports of the rising star's apparent suicide.

The model who starred in high-profile fashion campaigns was found dead after leaving messages on a website saying she was "lonely" and "depressed".

Kim, 20, who was a regular on catwalks in New York, Milan and Paris, modelled for leading designers, including Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Alexander McQueen.

Despite her professional success, she had hinted in a popular internet blog at her desire to end her life.

On November 5, she wrote: "I already accepted that I relate to nothing. The more I gain the more lonely it is ... I know I'm like a ghost."

The last entry, made on Thursday, on her blog titled "I Like To Fork Myself", was headlined "Say hi to forever" and had a link to a video of the song I Go Deep by British singer Jim Rivers.

On October 30, she sounded upbeat: "I left Seoul and I'm in Paris – I'm happy!" Her former home town had, she said, made her "mad, depressed and overworked". The following day she wrote: "No more running away from something or someone or myself."

Raised in Seoul and Singapore, Kim modelled in Asia before making her debut in Paris in 2007.

She most recently appeared at Seoul Fashion Week last month.

Known for her thick mane of hair and her quirkiness, the 178-centimetre model was appreciated for her sense of style. She recently featured in a Topshop commercial for the designer Christopher Kane.

Kim was also an accomplished painter and filmmaker, who had a solo show of her artwork in Seoul.

Commentators pointed to the parallels between her death and that of Lucy Gordon, 28, a British model-turned-actress who hanged herself in Paris in May.

Kim's Seoul agency, Esteem, said her family and agency officials had arrived in the French capital to speak to authorities.

Her death was announced on Friday by a number of agencies she worked for. Her Paris representatives said: "She was a top model and a great friend of all of us at Next."

South Korea, which has the highest suicide rate among the 30 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has had a string of high-profile suicides recently, including, in May, that of Roh Moo-hyun, the former president, under investigation for corruption.

In 2008, Choi Jin-sil, one of the country's top actresses, killed herself.