by Jung Ha-Won Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Known for its ultra-competitive, pressure-cooker society, South Korea has one of the world’s highest suicide rates. And this week the even higher stresses in the country’s lucrative showbiz industry took their toll on a K-pop superstar. Kim Jong-Hyun, a 27-year-old lead singer of the hugely popular boy band SHINee, took his own life in a Seoul hotel room on Monday, with his death sending […]

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Six of K-pop’s biggest stars carried the coffin of fellow singer Kim Jong-Hyun to a hearse Thursday, after he died leaving behind a suicide note that spoke of his battle with loneliness and depression. Kim’s body was taken to his funeral from the Asan Medical Centre in Seoul where it had been lying at rest. The procession was led by one of Kim’s bandmates from SHINee — one of the […]