Death will come to any of the living. It's just a matter of time, and how.
Kim Sae-ron was an aspiring star from South Korea. After making her debut career in 2001 as a child model and transitioned to acting in 2009, her public image as a celebrity was forged since starring A Brand New Life in 2009.
Her fame further escalated after she starred in The Man from Nowhere in 2010, which earned her the Best New Actress – Film nomination at the 47th Baeksang Arts Awards.
But one incident made all the above disappear.
Years of work as a celebrity who inspired many, simply vanished into thin air.
After just a negligence, her life was never the same.
On February 16, Kim was supposed to meet a friend, but Kim failed to keep up with the appointment. The friend was worried, and definitely knew what her friend was experiencing at the time. She paid a visit to Kim's home in Seoul, and there she was, lifeless.
Kim killed herself.
While she didn't leave any note, nothing casts doubt that she committed suicide due to the intense hardship, and the hopelessness caused by despair.
Her fall, the humiliation that followed, from appraisal she experienced all gone, replaced by public ridicule and hounding.
It was too much for her.
Kim was only 24.
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The downspiraling started early morning on May 8, 2022, when Kim Sae-ron was driving drunk in the Gangnam district of Seoul, and crashed after losing control of her car.
The car she was in, hit a tree and a guardrail, before ending up in a dead stop after hitting an electricity transformer.
There were no casualties.
However, the electric transformer was made out of order after crash and as a result of this, a number of businesses that rely on electricity from that transformer couldn't operate.
Despite the electricity was restored a few hours later and power was back up, Kim's career was switched off.
Because of the incident, she was fined 20 million won. And due to her celebrity status and driving under influence, she was immediately dropped by her management agency. At the time, she was supposed to star on Bloodhouds, a Netflix series under production. The incident made her being removed from the script, and as a result of this, she was forced to quit.
Making things worse, the contracts she signed with Gold Medalist, her agency, had a clause that forced her to pay fees if the contracts ever had to be cancelled.
Gold Medalist compensated businesses affected by the power outage, but because of that, Kim owed more than ₩700 million won ($486,000).
It was then reported all the money Kim accumulated during her career had been used to cover the costs and fees due to the accident and settlement expenses.
In the end, Kim found herself in debt, and had taken a part-time job in a café to make ends meet.
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In a written letter posted to her social media account, she said that:
I caused damage to so many people, including merchants, citizens, and those who restored it. I should have acted more carefully and responsibly, but I couldn't. I sincerely apologize.
We are working out the damage caused by the accident together with the company. I will do my best to communicate and actively resolve the matter until the end. I am very sorry to my fellow actors and staff as well as the production team for disrupting the production of the work that was being filmed and prepared.
Once again, we deeply apologize and apologize for causing concern. There is no excuse for this unfortunate incident. I am disappointed and very ashamed of the mistakes I have made.
At the time, she endured the first wave of her suffering.
Unfortunately for the young woman, she didn’t survive the second.
The worse part that came to her, was cancel culture.
As a professional, she made an apology. But despite doing what she was supposed to do, the public never consider her the same again.
Kim found herself at the center of harsh criticism and abuse by social media users.
Even after she withdrew from appearing on screen and in public, the hatred towards her still echoed throughout South Korean internet.
Cyber wreckers, online bullies, internet harassers, amplify the noise, further making Kim laughed at, denounced, and accused of exaggerating or inventing her hardships.
Cyberbullying has become an opportunity for many.
It's has been a long-standing publicized secret, and also publicly agreed upon, that reporting controversies and scandals, delivering conspiracies, piggybacking sensational and shocking news, doing viral content and challenges, and clickbaits, have been some of the easiest and fastest ways to get attention and money.
Without having to fact-check or verifying anything, the internet somehow loves this kind of content.
"YouTubers get the views, forums get the engagement, news outlets get the traffic. I don't think [Kim's death] will change the situation. There needs to be harsher criminal punishment against leaving nasty comments," said Kim Hern-sik.
Kim's father has accused Lee Jin-ho, a YouTuber running the channel @Behind_Master, of contributing to her death, claiming that the individual's controversial videos caused her severe emotional distress.
Meanwhile, some have blamed certain local media outlets, alleging that they fueled public hostility toward Kim by spreading fake news.
In about 1,000 days between her DUI crash in May 2022 and her death, South Korean mainstream news organizations published around 2,000 stories about her, many of which are negative, downgrading and blatantly sensational, if not negative.
"This cycle of media-driven character assassination must stop," civic group Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media said in a statement on Tuesday.
Na Jong-ho, a psychiatry professor at Yale University, compared the wave of celebrity deaths in South Korea to a real-life version of Squid Game, the hit South Korean Netflix series where desperate individuals compete in deadly challenges for a massive cash reward.
"Our society abandons those who stumble and moves on as if nothing happened.. How many more lives must be lost before we stop inflicting this destructive, suffocating shame on people?" he wrote on Facebook.
"Drunk driving is a big mistake. There would be a problem with our legal system if that goes unpunished. However, a society that buries people who make mistakes without giving them a second chance is not a healthy one," the professor added.
Kim Sae-ron knew how unforgiving the South Korean netizens are, and this was one of the main reasons why she abruptly stopped her pubic appearance.
Knowing how notorious the K-pop and K-drama industry can dictate their idols' private lives, Kim that was sacked, had a wildcard on her hand, and she chose to stop being in the public eye after her DUI conviction.
But the internet seemed to make its voices heard, and Kim heard them loud.
"It’s so hard, can everyone stop?" Kim wrote in a post.
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The internet seemed to accept that politicians—such as opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who has a past drunk-driving conviction—along with other male celebrities, were able to recover and regain their status.
And in South Korea, where things are unlike Hollywood, where controversies and scandals can make a star out of a commoner, its internet is also often harsher toward women than men . And this is why Kim couldn't get back up on he feet.
"While no one cheers when a Hollywood celebrity is arrested for DUI [driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs] or sent to jail for significant crimes, it's not necessarily career-ending," he said.
As a result of this, Kim chose the easier way to escape her reality.
She chose death, with her own hand, driven by the pressure of public expectation..
Yes, Kim committed suicide February 16. But the internet made that happen.
Following Kim's tragic death, Lee Jin-ho uploaded a video to his channel to share his condolences, and denied allegations that his content had cornered Kim prior to her passing.
"There are various controversies surrounding the deceased's death. Some claim I tormented her during her lifetime, but those are forced accusations," the former South Korean entertainment journalist added.
Lee changed the status of his videos to private as a sign of respect following Kim's passing.
"I wanted to show my respect by hiding those videos," he stated.