繼韓國女歌手Yuni新年伊始自殺身亡不久，近日又有一位韓國女藝人步其后塵，她就是曾和宋承憲合演過《那小子真帥》的女主角鄭多彬。分析其死因，鄭多彬男友透露，她近日因面臨工作瓶頸而陷入憂傷不能自拔。同時，也有專家認為，不負責任的網上攻擊也是導致鄭多彬自殺的一大原因。

Actress Jeong Da-Bin and pop singer Yuni, two high-profile young women with successful careers, were both found hanged in the past few weeks, sparking concern in South Korea, which has the highest suicide rate of all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members.

Police said Saturday Jeong, 27, had been found dead in the bathroom of her boyfriend's apartment in Seoul, having apparently succumbed to aboutof depression over a re                                                                                                cent shortage of work.

Her case was startlingly similar to that of Yuni, who was found hanged in her home in Incheon City on January 21. Her death shocked fans, who were waiting for the release of her third album.

"I am worried that a wave of copycat suicides might follow among youths," said Na Sun-Young of Lifeline Korea, which provides a telephone counselling service aimed at preventing suicides.

"Following the death of Yuni, I received many calls from young people who said they themselves were thinking aboutcommitting suicide. They were saying they had to die because even someone as beautiful as Yuni could not stand it and committed suicide," she said.

She noted that in March 2005, a wave of copycat suicides hit South Korea in the month after 24-year-old film star Lee Eun-Joo took her own life.

The National Statistics Office attributes the high suicide rate to economic hardship in the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis.

Concern about the high suicide rate has led to a bill aimed at providing counselling and medical treatment for potential victims being introduced to parliament for approval.

Oh Seung-Geun, a researcher at the state-financed Korea Institute for Youth Development, said suicide was the biggest cause of death among men in their twenties, but was often hidden.

Experts say young people can develop more permissive attitudes to suicide as a result of the glorification of victims and their deaths. Media coverage of high-profile deaths is also to blame, they believe.

The deaths of Yuni and Jeong also highlighted the potentially harmful effects ofcyber attackson celebrities. Both had reportedly suffered such attacks on their Internet sites.

"Many Internet users, taking advantage of anonymity, have made a hobby of writing malicious messages on websites, accusing celebrities of sex scandals or (having)plastic surgery," Oh said.

"Measures must be taken to curb this undesirable phenomenon."

（Agencies）

Vocabulary:

bout：a period of time spent in a particular way; a spell（一段時間，一段時光）

commit suicide：自殺

cyber attacks：網上攻擊

plastic surgery：整形手術

（英語點津陳蓓編輯）