PARIS, Nov 20, 2009 (AFP) - Twenty-year-old South Korean supermodel Daul Kim was found hanged in her central Paris apartment after an apparent suicide, the South Korean embassy said on Friday 20 November, citing French police officials.

Daul Kim

Kim -- a regular on the catwalks of London, Milan, New York, and Paris -- most recently modelled clothes from leading designers Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Alexander McQueen.

The last entry on her popular blog "I Like To Fork Myself" -- posted on Wednesday 18 November-- was headlined "say hi to forever" and had a link to a video of the song "I Go Deep" by British singer Jim Rivers.

South Korean embassy spokesman Lee Seung Yoo told AFP that French police "have informed us that Korean citizen Kim Daul committed suicide in her apartment yesterday afternoon."

"One of her friends found her body hanging in her apartment," he added. "Her family are coming to Paris from Seoul and will be arriving this evening or tomorrow morning."

Kim's death had been announced earlier Friday 20 November by agencies she worked for, with her Paris representatives saying: "She was a top model and a great friend of all of us at Next."

Her agency in South Korea, Esteem, said in a statement: "We express deep condolences to Daul Kim's family," it said, asking everyone to respect her family's privacy at this time of mourning.

In a blog entry on October 30 she complained after a modelling stint in Seoul that she was "getting mad depressed and overworked."

The 178-centimetre (five foot ten inch) model debuted on the runway for Chanel, Dries Van Noten, and Maison Martin Margiela in 2007 and recently appeared in a commercial for Christopher Kane's Topshop line.

Kim, who occasionally died her thick mane of dark hair blond, was also a painter and video filmmaker.

She was born in Seoul and raised there and in Singapore. She modelled in Asia before making her fashion week debut in Paris two years ago.

There has been a spate high-profile suicides in South Korea over the last year, including that of former president Roh Moo-hyun in May who ended his life after becoming embroiled in a corruption scandal.

South Korea ranked third in terms of suicides per head of population among the 30 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations in 2007, with 18.7 in every 100,000 people killing themselves.by Rory Mulholland