*Scroll down for videos and photos of Daul Kim*
UPDATE 11/24
Agence France Press confirmed that Kim died by suicide.
UPDATE 11/20:
Details are emerging about how model Daul Kim died, making the probability of a suicide more and more likely. Scroll down for more information and video of Kim.
From AP:
By JEAN-PIERRE VERGES
PARIS - A 20-year-old top South Korean model who was a fashion week regular in New York, Milan and Paris has been found hanged in her Paris apartment, a police official said Friday.
Daul Kim was found dead Thursday by her boyfriend, who alerted French police, the official said. He declined to be named in accordance with policy.
Paris police were working under the hypothesis that Kim committed suicide, he said.
Kim's agent, Alessandra Bertoldini of the Next modeling agency, said the model's mother was arriving in Paris later Friday. She declined to elaborate.
Raised in Seoul and Singapore, Kim modeled in Asia before making her fashion week debut in Paris in 2007, modeling for top brands like Chanel, Dries van Noten and Maison Martin Margiela, among others, her Seoul agency, Esteem, said. She most recently appeared during Seoul fashion week in October.
Known for her thick mane of hair -- sometimes dyed blond -- and her quirky sensibility, the 5-foot-10 (178-centimeter) model was celebrated for her sense of style. She was featured recently in a commercial for designer Christopher Kane's line of clothing for British retailer Topshop.
Kim also was an accomplished painter and video filmmaker who had a solo show of her artwork in Seoul.
Bloggers in South Korea mourned her death, speculating she felt the pressure of high-fashion modeling and a loss of identity.
In an Oct. 30 entry on her blog, Kim wrote she was "mad depressed and overworked," and in another entry said "the more i gain the more lonely it is ... i know i'm like a ghost."
The last entry on her blog, dated Nov. 18, was titled "say hi to forever" and carried a video of the song "I Go Deep" by British singer Jim Rivers.
South Korea -- which has the highest suicide rate among the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- has had a string of high-profile suicides over the past year.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun jumped to his death in May while embroiled in a widening corruption scandal and the ex-chairman of South Korea's oldest conglomerate killed himself earlier this month. In 2008, top actress Choi Jin-sil committed suicide, following in the footsteps of a fellow actor. A young actress in one of South Korea's popular soap operas also died by suicide.
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Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee, Kwang-tae Kim and Yewon Kang in Seoul contributed to this report.
11/19:
20-year-old model Daul Kim was found dead in her Paris apartment this morning, her agency Next has confirmed. The cause of death remains unknown, but a source told The Cut that she committed suicide.
The agency said in a statement "She was a top model and a great friend to all of us at Next. Please respect her family's privacy at this time of sadness. We will all miss her very much."
The South Korean model kept a blog called I Like To Fork Myself, and yesterday made her last posting under the title "say hi to forever." The post was a song called "I Go Deep" by Jim Rivers, under which she wrote "best track forever."
Kim recorded a video diary for New York magazine during fall Fashion Week in September 2008, in which she revealed that she was reading Tolstoy (which many mistook for "Toy Story") and talked about her qualms with tipping bad waiters.
PHOTOS:
In another installment, Kim filmed her fellow models backstage at the shows.