The dark side of South Korea’s lucrative cultural wave: Suicides and online harassment

For years, the cultural phenomenon of Hallyu — the South Korean wave sweeping cinema, pop music and television formats around the world — has also been making its way into the catalogues of streaming platforms such as Netflix, with romantic series and films.

One of the stars of the so-called “K-Dramas” was 24-year-old actress Kim Sae-ron. On February 16, she was found dead at her home in Seoul. The local police consider her death to be a suicide. This is the latest in a long series of unexpected deaths within the entertainment industry of the Asian country, which is one of the most competitive in the world.

The actress was one of numerous celebrities who have been affected by the harsh anti-drug campaign that has been promoted for years by the controversial president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol. Back in 2022, Kim faced a conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol, which led to a fine of 20 million won ($13,000), a sentence much lower than what an anonymous citizen would typically receive. Since then, she had been unsuccessfully trying to revive her career. After learning of her death, a fan community — Women Celebrities Gallery — has condemned the harsh criticism that Kim faced on social media in recent years, which resulted in her veritable cancellation.

Succeeding in South Korea means more than just becoming rich and famous. It’s synonymous with being an important asset to your government. Hallyu is — along with exports — one of the economic miracles that have rescued a nation that’s been facing a deep financial crisis since 1997. Back in 2004, its value was equivalent to 0.2% of the country’s GDP, or about $1.8 billion. By 2019, however, its value had increased more than sixfold, reaching over $12 billion, according to Casa Asia, a public consortium.

In the five years since, these figures have continued to grow. This is thanks to the fact that the South Korean Ministry of Culture has been steadily investing in this industry for decades. The result is reflected in the prestige of Korean directors at film festivals, the sales records obtained by K-Pop bands (such as BTS), the large following accumulated by K-Dramas and other series that feed streaming platforms, as well as the endless versions of contests, such as The King of Mask Singer.

The fact that South Korea has become one of the most popular countries in the world on-screen has also had a positive impact on its tourism industry and on a highly-relevant geopolitical factor: soft power. This is the diplomatic and ideological influence that states achieve through the growing popularity of their cultural products.

Ramón Pacheco — holder of the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) in Brussels — compares South Korean entertainment stars with elite athletes from other countries, due to the weight of representing an entire nation and the discipline required to achieve excellence. “What began as an economic strategy on the part of the South Korean government was later revealed as a powerful diplomatic and advertising asset,” Pacheco tells EL PAÍS by phone. “The authorities consider that even the worldwide success of films that denounce the inequality of South Korean society — such as Parasite (2019) — speak of the country in a positive way,” he explains.

Ester Torres-Simón — a researcher responsible for the Korea field at the GREGAL Research Group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) — notes that “when you carry out work that has such a direct influence on the economy of your country, it’s almost impossible to escape that level of pressure.” In a conversation with EL PAÍS, she reveals that South Korea’s idea of what a popular icon should be remains very traditional, “so much so that it no longer represents the reality of the street: a celebrity is required to be a model of perfect behavior, which is quite complicated.”

The case of actress Kim Sae-ron is added to that of Lee Sun-kyun, one of the stars of Parasite. The film consecrated the global phenomenon of Hallyu by being the first non-English-speaking drama to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020. Shortly after that success, the 48-year-old actor — who was married with two children — also took his own life, in December 2023. He was being investigated for a case of alleged marijuana use when he was found unconscious inside a car, parked in central Seoul. He had left a farewell note at his home. “In South Korea, penalties for drug use don’t just carry a severe legal punishment, but also resounding social condemnation,” Torres Simón points out.

Unlike cancel culture in the West, both experts explain this phenomenon of virtual criticism as a reflection of a much more technologically developed country. “[In South Korea], the use of Reddit-style forums is massive. It is part of people’s daily lives, both for social activism and for criticism of public figures. These forums have a social relevance that we cannot understand in Europe, because it goes far beyond the Twitter bubble,” the UAB researcher affirms.

Byung-Chul Han — a South Korean philosopher who resides in Germany — is a global star of contemporary thought. For years, the author of texts such as The Burnout Society (2010) has been analyzing the populations of developed countries, who are marked by professional fatigue, overdependence on mobile phones, self-exploitation at all levels and the absence of a personal life.

In an interview, while discussing the suicide rate in his country — one of the highest in the world, which affects all parts of society — the intellectual detailed the enormous competitive and performance pressure that Koreans face. “Solidarity is disintegrating. People are affected by depression. Obviously, people cannot bear that stress. And, when they fail, they don’t blame society: they blame themselves. They’re ashamed and they kill themselves,” he commented, well before this wave of deaths in the entertainment industry began.

The change of the new generations

Torres-Simón points out that Byung-Chul Han is “a great philosopher, but he was trained in Germany, where he has lived for many years. He’s basically a European thinker. His reflections are very interesting, but they’re global: they apply to his generation and not to younger ones, who already have a different relationship with work and with their company and a much more relaxed notion of professional success compared to the attitudes that existed years ago in countries such as Korea or Japan,” the researcher points out. “Those under 40 no longer live for the company: they’re more aware of their labor rights,” Pacheco agrees.

When asked about the high suicide rates, Pacheco argues that, in South Korea, “there’s an intense debate on the subject, as there is when it comes to digital harassment. These are not taboo subjects. Because it’s more concerned than other countries with recording all cases of suicide, the figures are higher than those of other countries, which tend to use euphemisms (such as accidental death due to ingestion of medicines) to explain these types of deaths to the public.”

According to the Institute of Statistical Studies of South Korea, the figures — while still high — have decreased compared to the years following the global economic crisis of 2008. “In other cultures, social tensions trigger external acts of violence — such as mass shootings — but in South Korea, they manifest themselves with internal violence,” Pacheco concludes.

The change of mentality in South Korean society is evident in cases such as that of the musician and actor Choi Seung-hyun (known as T.O.P.), a former member of the K-pop band BigBang. His story has a happy ending. Shunned by society and the industry since 2017 — after he admitted to having smoked marijuana several times while doing mandatory military service — it’s taken him seven years to get a second chance. Hwang Dong-hyuk — the creator of Squid Game — has tried to change this punitive trend by offering Choi one of the juiciest roles in the second season of the Netflix series, playing its antagonist, Thanos.

But the pressures faced by these artists often lead to tragic endings. In 2023, K-pop singer Moonbin passed away at the age of 25: he was found dead by his manager in his Seoul apartment. This happened just a few days after 26-year-old actress Jung Chae-yull killed herself.

Back in 2019, Sulli — a member of the female pop group f(x) — died at the age of 25, after reporting the harassment she suffered on social media. Her friend, Goo Hara — also a music star — was found dead in her home only a month later. She left a note in which she confessed to feeling “very pessimistic about life,” according to what the police told The Korea Herald.

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