Former South Korean President Roh Dies After Fall
| Former South Korean President Roh Dies After Fall | |
| 23 May 2009 |
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| Former S. Korean President Roh Moo-hyun (file photo) |
Police say that Mr. Roh suffered severe head injuries in the fall and died after being transported from his home town of Gimhae to a hospital in the southern city of Busan.
They are investigating the cause of the fall.
Mr. Roh, who was 63 years old, served as president from 2003 to 2008 and was elected on a platform of anti-corruption.
Earlier this month, he was questioned about allegations that he took more than $6 million in bribes from a businessman while in office.
Mr. Roh rose to prominence as a human rights lawyer, defending students accused of treason during South Korea's military rule in the 1980s.
He built a reputation for challenging the authority of then-military dictator Chun Doo-hwan. In 1987, he was arrested and suspended from his law practice on charges of supporting a strike by workers at a shipyard.
Mr. Roh was the youngest son of a peasant family from the southeastern part of the country. He had no formal education beyond high school and studied law on his own.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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미워할 수도 있을 조선일보 애독자였습니다.
한 나라의 대통령이었던 분이 이런 비참한
최후를 맞이했다는 슬픔은 국민의 한 사람으로
가슴깊이 회한으로 다가오며, 또한 노무현 전
대통령의 개인으로 봐서도 너무나 슬픈 일입니다.
영예로운 대한민국의 대통령이었던 분에게 이런
일이 있다는 건, 한국의 슬픔입니다.
슬픈 세상 마감하신 노무현 전 대한민국 대통령의
영전에 마음으로부터 삼가 조의를 표합니다.
/문화여행
| Former South Korean President Roh Dead in Apparent Suicide | |
| Seoul 23 May 2009 |
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| Former S. Korean President Roh Moo-hyun arrives at the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office in Seoul, South Korea, 30 Apr 2009 |
A lawyer for Mr. Roh's family says the former head of state left a brief note about his mental anguish Saturday before taking his own life. Moon Jae-in, a former aide, says Mr. Roh apparently jumped from a mountain cliff Saturday during an early morning hike. He died of injuries soon thereafter.
Mr. Roh and members of his family have been under investigation for allegedly receiving millions of dollars in bribes from a business executive. In his apparent suicide note, Mr. Roh requested he be cremated and be remembered with a small stone monument in his rural home village.
Roh: "Don't blame me"
The note says the former president could no longer even concentrate on reading a book, and added, "don't blame me, life and death are the same."
Mr. Roh testified for more than 10 hours last month in the corruption investigation. Prosecutors were giving serious consideration to issuing a warrant for the former president's arrest.
President campaigned on clean government
The scandal was a painful irony for Mr. Roh, who won election in 2002 on a campaign of clean and transparent government. He expressed shame and apologized publicly to South Korean citizens at the site of last month's testimony.
Average South Koreans are shocked, and mixed in their reaction to the news. Thirty-year-old Yun Hye-yun says it was an irresponsible thing to do, as the president of a nation, especially South Korea, where suicide is a major social problem. Still, she says she can partially understand why he did it, as a means to assume responsibility for the whole family's wrongdoing.
Fifty-nine-year-old Jeon Su-young describes the suicide as "unbelievable, impossible." He says Mr. Roh must have suffered so much. Even though the authorities wanted to get to the truth, he says, things should not have turned out this way.
It remains to be seen how South Koreans, especially supporters of Mr. Roh, will behave as they emerge from shock. Some political observers are predicting a backlash against prosecutors, and possibly public demonstrations.
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