Promising young Korean star dies in apparent suicide

SEOUL - Rising Korean actress Lee Eun-ju, 25, who starred in one of the highest-grossing movies in the South Korea's history, has died, apparently after hanging herself with a necktie in a dressing room, police said.

Lee starred in the hit movie "Taeguki," and had been battling depression, her family told Korean media. She apparently killed herself on Tuesday and left a suicide note scrawled in blood, in which she wrote "Mom, I am sorry and I love you," police said.

She suffered a bout of mental illness after performing nude scenes for her role as a sultry jazz singer in the noir Korean crime movie "The Scarlet Letter," her family said.

The movie was selected as the closing film last year at one of the biggest film events in Asia, the Pusan International Film Festival.

Lee's managers said the movie had nothing to do with her suicide.

Lee is best known for her role in "Taeguki," which can be translated as "National Flag." The movie, about brothers who are forced to fight in the Korean War, set an opening-day box office record in Korea and made the rounds of the international circuit.

Lee was considered a rising star in the South Korean movie industry, one of the hottest in Asia.

She scored her first major role in the 2000 movie "Oh! Soo-jung" and had graduated from Danguk University a few days before she was found dead.

- REUTERS