South Korea’s most famous pop singer. Kim Jong-Hyun, has devastated his fans in a suspected suicide with thousands lining the streets crying. South Korea has one of the world’s highest suicide rates in the world and it is the chief cause of death for under 30s, due it is thought to a highly competitive education system and a corporate culture that has little tolerance for failure. The entertainment is notoriously tough and K-pop singers can face demanding lifestyles with every aspect of their lives – from their musical style and fashion to diet and even mobile phone use – dictated by powerful management agencies. He had been in the public eye for 10 years, his music making inroads across Asia and into Europe. In a note made public a day after his death, he said he felt “broken from inside. The depression that gnawed on me slowly has finally engulfed me entirely,” adding that he “couldn’t defeat it any more”. The fear is now for copy-cat suicides.
Born 8 April 1990 in Seoul, he had an Aries Sun square Saturn, Neptune and Uranus in Capricorn, so he was part of the highly-strung triple conjunction generation of that period, who can be tinged with genius, but are also chaotic and can be obsessive. The Saturn square his Sun would make him feel he was never good enough; and Saturn Neptune can be neurotic. More pointedly he had an intense Pluto in Scorpio square Mars in Aquarius which would give rise to acute frustrations. His sensitive, musical Venus in Pisces was trine Jupiter in Cancer; and he had an over-worrying Virgo Moon probably trine his Capricorn planets which would exacerbate his tendency to brood. His Mercury in Taurus was also trine Uranus Neptune, with much the same effect.
Tr Pluto had been squaring his Sun through 2017 which would ramp up the pressure on him; and he had been through high-stress in 2016 with his Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Mars; as well as tr Pluto and tr Uranus hitting on his Neptune and Uranus before that – so his inner turmoil would have been building for some years.
South Korea, 15 August 1948, does have a bleak, hard-driving chart with the Leo Sun conjunct Pluto on one side and Saturn Mercury on the other – so not much room for compassion for for those who can’t match up to Saturn in Leo’s demand for great accomplishments. Given that his crushing Mars Pluto square collided with the SK Sun Pluto Saturn it’s not a stretch to suggest it was the country’s ethos which finally defeated him.