Teacher suicide exposes parent bullying in S Korea

On 5 June, Lee Min-so* described in her diary the fear that overtook her body as she entered her classroom to teach: "My chest feels too tight. I feel like I'm going to fall somewhere. I don't even know where I am."

On 3 July the primary school teacher wrote that she had become so overwhelmed by the craziness of work she "wanted to let go".

Two weeks later, the 23-year-old was found dead in her classroom store cupboard by her colleagues. She had taken her own life.

This tragedy has unleashed a wave of anger from primary school teachers across South Korea.

Tens of thousands of them went on strike on Monday to demand better protection at work. They say they're frequently harassed by overbearing parents, who call them all hours of the day and weekends, incessantly and unfairly complaining.

Min-so's cousin, Park Du-yong, struggles not to cry as he straightens out her small, empty apartment, now home to just her goldfish. Her bed is unmade, and beside it sits a pile of drawings from her first-grade students, telling her how much they loved her. Underneath is a stack of library books on how to cope with depression.

Park says his cousin had been teaching for little over a year, fulfilling her childhood dream by following her mother into the profession. She had adored the kids, he says.