SEOUL - A top K-pop star wrote in a suicide note that he was broken from inside and engulfed by depression, it emerged Tuesday as his death sent shockwaves among fans worldwide. Kim Jong-Hyun, 27-year-old lead singer of the hugely popular K-pop boyband SHINee, was found in a hotel room in the South Korean capital Seoul in what police said was suicide. A coal briquette was burning on a frying pan - a common method of self-killing in South Korea, an ultra-competitive society with one of the world's highest suicide rates. Kim's close friend, musician Nain9, released a suicide note on her Instagram account, saying he had asked her to publish the message in the event of his death. I am broken from inside. The depression that gnawed on me slowly has finally engulfed me entirely, it said, adding he couldn't defeat it anymore. I was so alone, he went on. The act of ending is difficult. I've lived until now because of that difficulty. Please tell me I did a good job, he implored, ending the note with: You've worked hard. You've really gone through a lot. Goodbye. The five-member SHINee debuted in 2008 and went on to lead the Korean Wave that saw South Korean pop culture develop a fan base across Asia and beyond. Known for peppy songs and carefully-choreographed dance numbers performed with military precision, SHINee have become one of the world's best-known K-pop acts. Hundreds of Kim's tearful fans paid their respects at a mourning altar in the Seoul hospital where his body lay. I came here to say the last farewell... since we fans apparently couldn't be there for him when he needed help most, said Jung Min-Kyung, 19. Social media was flooded by thousands of messages of mourning, and in the hours after his death it was the top trending topic on China's Twitter-like Weibo, with more than 140 million views. - AFP