At 32, singer and actor Park Yong-ha was riding high on the "Korean Wave" that has swept across Asia's entertainment industry.

A Japanese concert tour was due to kick off later this month.

His death shocked fans, and marked the latest in a series of suicides by famous South Koreans.

He rose to fame in 2002 on the pan-Asian television hit "Winter Sonata" and was set to take his career to new heights this summer with a starring role alongside fellow Yoon Eun-hye in the much-anticipated television drama "Love Song."

These deaths are representatives of a wider turmoil in South Korea.

But on June 30th, the actor who appeared to have the world at his feet was found dead in his apartment by his mother, apparently having killed himself.

In 2009, South Korea had the highest suicide rate among the 31 mostly wealthy nations in OECD, at around 22 deaths per 100,000 people (compared with around 18 in 100,000 for the OECD as a whole.)

The OECD report attributes the rise of suicide to a fast-changing economy over the decades.

But at the same time as this "economic miracle " has swept the country to greater riches, many traditional social structures have broken down,

Lee Min-soo, professor of psychiatry at Korea University College of Medicine, supports this view.

In the past decades, South Korea has embarked on a process of political and commercial freedom and high-tech industrialization that has made it one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

"It is the price we pay for such unsustainable fast economic development," says Dr. Lee.

with smaller families, rising house prices, the end of lifelong employment, fierce competition for the best jobs and rising alcoholism.

Dr. Lee also points to the heavily publicized suicides of South Korean celebrities as a possible factor in the high suicide rate overall.

A link is hard to prove, says Dr. Lee -- but "the extensive coverage and detailed reporting on how people kill themselves is worrying."