Posted on 05/23/2009 11:15:03 AM PDT by libh8er
Taiwanese feel deeply for the tragic death of former South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, who jumped off a cliff in his hometown early Saturday morning.
Roh, entangled in corruption charges implicating his family members and questioned last month in a bribery investigation, left behind a note to his family, his attorney Moon Jae In said at a televised briefing Saturday.
“The president left his home at around 5:45 a.m. to climb Mount Bonghwa, and appears to have jumped off a rock at the top of the mountain at around 6:40 a.m.,” Moon told reporters at the briefing in Busan University Hospital in the southeastern port city of Busan. “He left a short note to his family.”
MBC television reported that Roh said in the note that things have been "difficult" and he felt he had made "too many people suffer." The note also said Roh wanted his body cremated, according to the report.
Roh, 62, who ended his five-year term in February last year, was accompanied at the time by one bodyguard, who was unable to stop the one-time civil-rights lawyer from jumping to his death, police officials in Busan said.
“This is hard to believe,” President Lee Myung Bak said in a statement on his official Web site. “It’s very sad and lamentable.” Prime Minister Han Seung Soo expressed shock and sadness at the start of an emergency Cabinet meeting today.
Roh “was unconscious and not breathing when he arrived at the hospital,” Park Seung Wan, chief of Busan University Hospital, said at a separate briefing. “Skull fracture and cerebral contusion appear to be the immediate cause of death.”
Roh came from a poor farming family, went to a commercial high school and never received a college education. He studied on his own to pass the difficult bar exam and built a reputation as a lawyer defending students accused of sedition under past military rule. Roh became president in a close election with support from young South Koreans helping him to win.
With Mr. Roh pushing a soft line concerning North Korea, relations with the George W. Bush administration were often tense during Mr. Roh's tenure, though he did dispatch South Korean troops to northern Iraq, making South Korea the largest contributor to the coalition after American and British units. He also presided over the signing of a free trade agreement with the United States, although that agreement remains unratified by either country's government.
His administration continued his predecessor Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" toward communist North Korea. Mr. Roh's biggest achievements in inter-Korean policy were the opening of the Kaesong Joint Industrial complex, using North Korean labor and South Korean management and capital, and his 2007 summit with the North's leader, Kim Jong-il. His policies, however, did not prevent North Korea from testing a nuclear device in 2006.
Roh was impeached in 2004 for calling on the public to vote for candidates from his Uri Party in parliamentary elections, a violation of the president's political neutrality. He was the first South Korean president to be impeached. He was reinstated after two months of suspension after a court ruled against the impeachment.
He quickly became mired in charges that he was incompetent and corrupt.
Roh had been under investigation over allegations that he took more than $6 million from a businessman while in office. The bribery scandal involving Roh and his family had tainted his image as a "clean" politician in a country with a long history of corruption.
He was questioned by prosecutors in Seoul last month as part of the probe.
Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han expressed deep regrets over the death of the former president in a statement, adding that the current case is likely to be closed.
"The police and the prosecution are probing into the exact cause and details of the death," the minister said
Was his first name "Ruh"?
His bodyguard was with him and couldn’t stop him. Hmm.
I guess he was a big hit in Korea.
An honor suicide would not be stopped.
Isn’t Roh the jerk who gave n.Korea food, fuel, and technology without gaining anything from the NOrth except more threats?
A leap off the capitol at the same time would be a nice touch.
Truth does have a way of doing that when it exposes a fraud.
At least he felt shame. Corrupt Dem politicians don’t know the meaning of that word.
Like to see a whole passel of politicians both dems and pubbies jump off a cliff in unison.
Heck, sell it on pay per view, I’d buy it.
If your own brother was starving and trying to hang on to life in another part of the world under a dictator, would you try to send food to him? Would THAT make YOU a freaking JERK because you didn't "get nothing in return?"
Politics aside for the moment, your comment shows a great deal of your character.
Besides, he still sent troops to Iraq to support us, remember? The second strongest support behind the UK.
Evidently, he made a lot of mistakes, but he paid for it with his life. Are YOU perfect???
Chong you are a moron.
You gonna give N.Korea fuel and food which N.Korea simply gives to its military.
The very vast majority of international aid given to N.Korea goes to the military. Not to the people who are eating dirt.
Course you like Clinton and Carter can continue feeding the enemy that set off a nuke last night and is threatening its neighbors.
Hell yeah ya dumb ass.
Step, Away, from, your, crack pipe, and learn to read AND understand what the words mean...
AND, learn to compose a complete sentence. (Read what you wrote again sober and MAYBE you will comprehend enough to be embarassed...???)
Before you call others names like dumb ass, please do the public a favor and look in the mirror, won’t you?
You are a dumbass and not worth the time there chong.
At least he felt shame. Corrupt Dem politicians don’t know the meaning of that word.............
Dittos on that plus the way he killed himself showed class
Yeah, agree. He made mistakes but who doesn’t... At least he owned up to it with his very life. God rest his soul.
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