‘If employment insurance was extended to cover artists, they could receive the minimum unemployment benefits needed to survive, and it would raise them out of extreme poverty.’ - Theater Professor Chai Seung-hoon

It was a shock to the nation. The lifeless body of a successful and talented screenwriter was found in her small, unheated home on Feb. 8. Beside her body lay a handwritten note begging her landlord for rice and kimchi. In the short letter, Choi Go-eun repeatedly apologized for failing to pay her electricity bill. 

The 31-year-old died of complications stemming from hyperthyroidism and pancreatitis. Her colleagues say her death was avoidable, and Koreans struggled to comprehend how someone so seemingly successful could have led such a desolate life. 

Since Choi’s death, she has become something of a martyr for impoverished artists across the country. Professional musicians, writers and actors say they have long suffered from unfairly low wages, while at the same time they are excluded from state-sponsored welfare. 

In the wake of the screenwriter’s tragic death, a string of measures have been proposed to protect film industry workers. Sweeping bills covering everything from the entertainment industry’s well-known contractual problems to the extension of welfare provisions to artists have been submitted to the National Assembly by both the Grand National Party and the Democratic Party. 

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choung Byoung-gug held a roundtable discussion last month aimed at getting to the bottom of the problems that have long plagued professional artists. 

Choi’s untimely death brought back memories of musician Lee Jin-won, who went by a stage name that translates to “A Moonlight Fairy’s Come Back with a Grand Slam Home Run.” Lee released seven albums before passing away on Nov. 1 last year at the age of 37. 

His death brought to attention the entertainment industry’s profit 
distribution scheme between major music portals and musicians, which critics have long labeled unfair.