She was a household name in South Korea known for her happy image.

But darkness loomed in actress Choi Jin Sil's life.

During her tumultuous marriage to professional baseball player Cho Sung Min, he was arrested for attacking her.

They announced their break-up in 2002, just two years after the wedding.

After their messy and very public divorce in 2004, she suffered from depression and was on medication, said her family.

She worried about bringing up her two children, who are now in elementary school, and often spoke of dying, added a friend.

After her long-time friend, actor Ahn Jae Hwan, gassed himself in a car last month, online rumours spread that she had driven him to suicide by pressing him to pay back her loan of 2.5 billion won (S$2.75 million).

The malicious online accusations, which she had complained to the police about, might have been the last straw.

Choi, 39, was found dead at her home in Seoul last Thursday. The police believe she hanged herself.

Her death is not the first in South Korea to be linked to cyber abuse.

At least five other celebrities - Ahn, 34; actor Yeo Jae Gu, 37; actress Jeong Da Bin, 26; singer U Nee, 25; and rising movie star Lee Eun Ju, 24 - have killed themselves since 2005.

The deaths of U Nee and Jeong last year, which took place less than three weeks apart, were linked to online attacks. U Nee in particular had faced an onslaught of hate mail which accused her of having undergone plastic surgery. She was called a 'plastic human being' and a 'manufactured celebrity'. At one time she was mistaken for the Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu who was killed in Kuala Lumpur in 2006.

All five were reportedly depressed too.

South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the developed world.

In 2005, 24.7 per 100,000 people killed themselves, according to the Korea National Statistical Office. The number jumped from 6,440 in 2000 to 12,047 in 2005.

South Korea's suicide rate is higher than Japan's (24.2 in 2005) and about double that of the United States and Canada.

One reason for the increase might be a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the highly competitive country, said the government in a report two years ago.

Experts also attribute the rise to the stress of rapid modernisation, reported the New York Times.

Related to the trend is the scourge of online malice. According to the National Internet Development Agency of Korea, nine in 10 South Korean households have broadband access and Web portals have an average of 135 million page views a day.

Therefore rumours and false information, posted online, spread fast in a country as wired as South Korea. The so-called 'cyber violence' often involves personal attacks, harassment and defamation.

Earlier this year, online rumours fuelled street rallies staged by tens of thousands of South Koreans to protest against US beef imports.

In the wake of Choi's death, Seoul is pushing with renewed vigour for a law to police Web use, said Yonhap news agency.

Last Friday, Mr Hong Joon Pyo, floor leader for the ruling Grand National Party, said in parliament: 'There will be continuing nuisances from malicious messages on the Internet should we not set a punishment.'

Under the proposed law, users who post vicious rumours online will be punished.

In addition, all users will have to register with websites using real names before they post comments.

In Choi's case, a securities company employee was arrested last week on suspicion of spreading the rumours about the actress' loan to her friend.

The police have since concluded that the rumours were unfounded.

But it is too late for her.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Oct 5, 2008.