By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter
Esteem Model's, a Seoul-based agency for the late model Daul Kim, announced Tuesday that it appears she committed suicide due to the pressures of her work, in a move to silence speculation surrounding her death.
"Kim apparently took her own life at her home in Paris on Nov. 19",the agency said.
On the reasons for her suicide, it said, "As a model, painter, writer and filmmaker, she started her artistic works at a very young age, and she must have been anxious about the rest of her life after all these accomplishments. In addition, she was not able to live the normal life other girls did at her age. We suspect she felt confused and lost, after experiencing the gap between reality and anticipation after she reached the top in her career. We assume that she didn't want to show a slide after reaching the top".
Her agency said it was speaking up to silence all speculation surrounding her demise.
Speculation Lingers
However, some international media reported that there have been concerns that her death may not have been suicide, with suspicions centering on reports of Kim's allegedly abusive relationship with her boyfriend.
The Daily Beast, an American online news provider, reported that Daul Kim instant-messaged with a close friend on the morning of last Thursday, just hours before her death.
She was depressed, she wrote, according to a transcript of the chat seen by The Daily Beast.
It quoted her friend as saying: "She and her boyfriend had just had another brutal physical fight. She'd punched him in the face; he'd yanked her hair. But she was afraid to leave him, afraid to suffer the agony of being apart".
A few hours later, Kim was found, hanging in her apartment in Paris' 10th arrondissement, it reported.
She had said she felt trapped and mentioned thoughts of suicide in the instant-messaged conversation, the Beast reported. French authorities say they believe the death to be suicide but are still investigating.
Her family shut her blog to the public this week.
Joy Yoon, Kim's friend, told The Daily Beast that Daul was the face of Korea on a worldwide scale, and when someone represents Korea at that level, there is a lot of pressure.
"Though Daul had an extremely bright future ahead of her, I don't think she could cut loose from her background and the pressures of it", she said. "The loneliness she must have felt must have been suffocating. Did her agencies really have her best interests at heart? I know she wanted stability and a somewhat normal life and even complained about it. Isn't that a sign? A cry for help?"
