Her death was discovered after she left a series of messages on a website saying she was "lonely" and "depressed".
Kim, 20, was a regular on catwalks in New York, Milan and Paris was found hanged in her city centre apartment by a friend, according to police.
She had modelled for leading designers, including Chanel, Dries van Noten and Alexander McQueen. Despite her professional success, she had hinted at her desire to end her life in her popular internet blog – a series of poems, photos and thoughts called "I like to Fork Myself".
On October 30, she sounded upbeat: "I left Seoul and I'm in Paris – I'm happy!" Her former home town had, she said, made her "mad, depressed and overworked".
The following day she wrote: "No more running away from something or someone or myself." But her thoughts had apparently darkened by November 5, when she wrote: "I already accepted that I relate to nothing. The more I gain the more lonely it is... I know I'm like a ghost."
And in a final comment on November 18, she posted an entry entitled "Say hi to forever" accompanied by a video of the song I Go Deep by British singer Jim Rivers.
One internet link redirects to a website on Joy Division, whose lead singer Ian Curtis hanged himself in 1980.
