From Kyunghyang News:

‘KakaoTalk Outcast’ Female High School Student Commits Suicide

Family of the deceased: ‘She was bullied in KakaoTalk chat room’

A female high school student recently committed suicide by jumping off the top of an apartment. Family of the deceased claimed that their daughter had been bullied by her peers. The police are investigating the accident.

On 14th August, Kang, a 16-year-old 10th grader in high school, threw herself from the 11th floor of an apartment located in Songpa-gu, at around 1:15 PM. The security guard who spotted her immediately called the police, but she was already dead by the time the police arrived. Kang wrote a will for her friends and her family before she killed herself. However, there was no evidence of murder. Kang’s family claims that their daughter committed suicide because she couldn’t tolerate verbal abuse in a KakaoTalk chat room from her peers anymore.

Kang’s father (48), in a telephone interview with the Kyunghyang Newspaper, said that his daughter showed him a snapshot of the chat room 20 minutes before she killed herself, showing abusive language from 16 male peers. He said her last spoken words were ‘I need help to solve this problem’. He also said that his daughter wept out loud by saying that she cannot go to school anymore because it was too painful to get bullied by her peers.

Kang’s father was about to bring the snapshot to the school and ask for any possible measures to protect his daughter from the bullies. But Kang committed suicide right after her father left for school.

Kang’s father said ‘my daughter had been habitually bullied by her ex-boyfriend’s friends, after she broke up with him last February.’

‘Last May, Kang got herself into a quarrel with them in front of a convenience store near her home, and then she was later invited to a KakaoTalk chat room, where the abusive language continued.’ According to him, the murder suspects did not admit their past actions until he showed them a snapshot of the chat room.

Police will carry out further investigations by summoning those who were in the chat room and they will be questioned as testifiers.

Comments from Naver:

kdh9****:

Suicide these days has really become common. Probably because those who commit suicide are being glamorized so much by the media, many people think that suicide is a solution to protect one’s pride. And to those who commit suicide, we should label them as ‘losers’. I mean, because those who commit suicide either receive sympathy or are praised by the mass media, it gives an image as if suicide is like a good choice or something. But let’s not forget: the ugliest form of defeat in this world is suicide. It’s like, if you’re thinking about committing suicide, you’re basically acknowledging that you are the worst loser in the world. Suicide is defeat. So for those of you who are thinking of committing suicide, just DON’T DO IT.

ksw1****:

Hi! I’m the bread shuttle of my school. Everyone teases me whenever they feel bored. They rob me, take my pens and tear my books. They even took my new backpack. My friend is also in the same situation cause he’s a geek too. They forcibly make me eat paper in front of girls and have me stay in a push-up position and keep me from going to after school classes and they beat me in the bathroom when I resist. My teacher knows this is happening but still pretends to not know anything. I just wanna die… what should I do?

jcn0****:

When do you think a person dies? When a bullet penetrates their heart? No. When you are terminally ill? No. When you eat deadly poisonous mushroom soup? No. It is when you are forgotten by other people…get it? You attacker bitches

pik4****:

It’s so pathetic for you guys to say those things without knowing all the facts. All of the 16 people are my friends and they are having a hard time. It’s already fucking annoying without your fucking comments so don’t spit words like that out.

j840****:

This is a friend of one of the attacker. He is having a hard time. He said he will sue everyone who writes extremely insulting comments.

miye****:

This shows why men have to go to the army! How can they to bully a weak girl! How about extending the enlistment of [compulsory] military service to 10 years just like North Korea?

sepo****:

From what I heard from my tutee who is the female student of Youngdongil High School [presumed school where the girl came from], though the bullying was a problem, she was also a victim of sexual harassment. I wish there would be a proper investigation so that every attacker is punished.

sexy****:

fhdl****:

They [the attackers] are regretting what they did and are going through a rough patch of guilt. But she didn’t die cos of those guys. This is a real witch-hunt. Who are you guys who just post malicious comments because of this fabricated article?

than****:

We should get rid of KakaoTalk. People have car accidents because they were using KakaoTalk while driving, and people use KakaoTalk and kill themselves and aging happens due to KakaoTalk and fingers are paralyzed due to KakaoTalk and Hwa-young [from girl group T-ara] became an outcast due to KakaoTalk and we’re about to lose Dokdo due to KakaoTalk and unification is being interrupted due to KakaoTalk. I hope for it to be abolished as soon as possible.

skah****:

Kang is 16 years old and yet she is a high school student?! [16 years of age in Korea is the equivalent to 15 in Western age]

nat2****:

Committing suicide is a big fault innit he he Maybe it’s an even bigger fault than leaving someone out in the cold

sala****: