'Broken' K-pop star reveals loneliness in suicide note

SEOUL - A top K-pop star wrote in a suicide note that he was "broken from inside" and "engulfed" by depression, it emerged on Tuesday as his death sent shockwaves among fans worldwide.

Kim Jong-hyun, 27-year-old lead singer of the hugely popular K-pop boyband SHINee, was found in a hotel room in the South Korean capital Seoul in what police said was suicide.

A coal briquette was burning on a frying pan - a common method of self-killing in South Korea, an ultra-competitive society with one of the world's highest suicide rates.