Police in South Korea have found the body of K-pop star Choi Sung-bong at his home in Seoul's Yoxam-dong district at the age of 33.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the Korean star has ended his life, two years after claiming that he has cancer, and asked fans to donate money for his treatment, which he later apologized for, and promised to return this money, as he apologized for deceiving his fans, according to the British newspaper Daily Mail, which quoted the news from the Korea Times.
Police said Choi died by suicide because of a message he posted on his Twitter page apologizing for his foolish mistakes, thanking his fans for their support for his career, and adding that from 2011 to the present he has received attention and love from many.
The Korean singer stated that he does not regret the journey of life that he lived brilliantly, as he lived the best he could, and tried to get happiness every day, and apologized for the scam he carried out two years ago, and said, "I am sincerely sorry for my foolish mistakes and those who were damaged because of them."
"I have made mistakes over and over the past two years I have returned donations to everyone who asked to return these donations," he said.
Korean singer Choi Sung Bong, one of Korea's most prominent pop singers, began his career by participating in the program "Got Talent" in 2011, at the age of 22, and outperformed his rivals, but lost in the final stage by a narrow margin in the votes to get second place in the program.
But the young singer succeeded in reaching the hearts of the masses because of the spread of music videos of him during his participation in the program on social media, and the viewership rates of the song "Ennio Morricone's Nella Fantasia" with an operatic performance reached 21 million views on YouTube, and received praise from many stars such as Justin Bieber, who wrote on his Facebook page commenting on Choi Song Bong's singing: "Wonderful and we wish him success. A moving story."
During Choi's auditions at Got Talent, he revealed that his family left him in an orphanage at the age of three, and he escaped from it after being beaten at the age of five, and has since lived homeless, moving from place to place on his own, and stating that singing is the only thing that brought him joy during this time.
Choi explained that he dropped out of music school because of poverty and financial inability.
Following this success, he signed a deal with the company "Pong Pong" to present a range of songs, and released a number of singles later, including "Matabal" in 2016, "Tonight" in 2021, and "I Pray" in 2022.
The death of the Korean singer comes just a week after the death of Korean actress Park Su-ryun at the age of 29 after falling on a set of stairs while returning home, and was transferred to the hospital for treatment to be announced after her death from a stroke.