Ex-SKorean leader Roh leaps to death over scandal

QX179R SG

SEOUL, South Korea - Former President Roh Moo-hyun, embroiled in a penetrating corruption investigation, leaped to his death Saturday _ a shocking end for a man whose rags-to-riches rise took him from rural poverty to Seoul's presidential Blue House. He was 62.

Roh, a self-taught lawyer who never attended college and didn't have the elite background typical of Seoul politicians, had prided himself on being a "clean" leader immune to South Korea's traditional web of corruption.

Allegations that Roh, president from 2003-08, accepted $6 million in bribes from a businessman while in office weighed heavily on the ex-leader, who appeared emotionally wrought last month as he prepared to face prosecutors.

Roh hurled himself off a 100 foot (30 meter) high cliff early Saturday while hiking, trailed by a security guard, near his home in Bongha, police in the nearby southern port city of Busan said. Life had become unbearable and "too many people are suffering because of me," Roh wrote in a note found on his computer, police said.

"What's left for me for the rest of my life is just to be a burden to others," his note said. "Don't be too sad. Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't feel sorry. Don't blame anybody. It's destiny." He asked to be cremated, a small gravestone erected near his home.

Roh's suicide stunned the nation. At train stations and shopping malls across the country, South Koreans were glued to TV monitors. Many snapped up special newspaper editions about Roh. Tens of thousands flooded his Web site, many posting condolences.

"I was utterly shocked," said Chun Soon-im, 63, of Seoul. "They say 'hate the sin but not the sinner,' and that's how I feel. The investigation must continue and we must get to the truth, but I cannot help feeling sorry for the man and those left behind."

Mourners wailed as Roh's coffin, draped in red, returned to Bongha from a Busan hospital. His two children, sobbing, followed the casket to the community center near his birthplace of Gimhae, some 280 miles (450 kilometers) from Seoul. Hundreds lined up late in the night to pay their respects.

In the capital, more than 2,500 people held a somber candlelight memorial service at a makeshift mourning site, many bowing, burning incense and leaving white chrysanthemums, a traditional Korean symbol of grief.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said he was "saddened" by the news and offered his condolences to Roh's family and the South Korean people.

Roh's is the latest high-profile suicide in a country with the highest suicide rate among the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The corruption allegations against Roh were by no means the worst leveled against a South Korean president.

In 1997, two ex-presidents were convicted of pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes while in office. Chun Doo-hwan, president from 1981-88, was fined $270 million; Roh Tae-woo, leader from 1998-93, was fined $350 million.

But the accusations were deeply shameful to Roh, who built a reputation as anti-corruption crusader.

"I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens. I am sorry for disappointing you," Roh told supporters three weeks ago before turning himself over to prosecutors who grilled him for more than 10 hours.

During the interrogation, Roh denied the allegations against him, the prosecution spokesman Cho Eun-sok said.

He previously acknowledged that a local businessman indicted in December in a separate bribery scandal _ gave his wife $1 million, which he did not consider a bribe. He also said he was aware the man gave $5 million to another relative but thought it was an investment.

Prosecutors suspect all $6 million eventually reached Roh, and were expected to announce soon whether they would seek to arrest him. His wife and children also were summoned for questioning, and last week his elder brother was sentenced to four years in prison in a separate bribery scandal.

A worried Roh wasn't eating properly and had taken up smoking recently, news reports said.

Roh's backers accuse conservative supporters of President Lee Myung-bak, who took over from Roh in February 2008, of carrying out the probe as political revenge. Near Seoul's City Hall, Roh supporters stood in line to sign a petition seeking Lee's impeachment.

Lee, who learned of Roh's death just before a summit with European Union officials, appeared grim Saturday. He found news of Roh's death "truly hard to believe," spokesman Lee Dong-kwan quoted him as saying.

Roh's death was a tragic end for the humble son of farmers who never attended college but still managed to pass the country's tough bar exam in 1975 and opened his own practice three years later.

He forged a reputation as a human right lawyer, defending students accused of sedition under previous military-backed administrations. He once was arrested and his law license suspended for supporting an outlawed labor protest.

Roh's political career took off with his election as a liberal lawmaker to the National Assembly in 1988.

His ascension to the presidency came in a surprise 2002 election win on a campaign pledge not to "kowtow" to the United States, one that resonated with young voters.

But in 2004, Roh made the costly misstep of urging voters to support candidates from his Uri Party in a violation of political neutrality laws. He was impeached, then reinstated months later after a court ruled in his favor.

Roh maintained liberal predecessor President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy" of offering North Korea aid to facilitate reconciliation, holding a summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2007, the second such meeting between leaders of the two countries that technically remain at war.

"I lost my lifetime democracy movement comrade. I feel like half of my body has collapsed," Kim said, according to an aide.

Though criticized as inexperienced and confrontational by some, Roh was praised by others as a humble, candid leader who pushed for political reform and fought against corruption.

"He shocked us twice: first, by betraying our trust in him as the keeper of justice when it was revealed that he'd received the illegitimate money; now, in showing that he was not even responsible enough to face the consequences of his action," said Kim Hye-jung, 35, of Seoul. "As a supporter of the values he stood for, I feel greatly let down."

Roh is survived by his wife, Kwon Yang-sook, son Roh Gun-ho and daughter Roh Jeong-yeon. Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.

--AP

QX179R SG

South Korea plans public funeral for ex-leader Roh

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's government and the family of former President Roh Moo-hyun agreed on Sunday to hold a public funeral for the leader who likely jumped to his death after being hounded for weeks in a widening corruption scandal.

Roh, 62, whose single five-year term as president ended about 15 months ago, appears to have leapt from a cliff behind his rural home on Saturday morning.

He wrote in a note before his death: "Don't blame anybody. Please cremate me. And please leave a small tombstone near home." Local police said the results of a provisional investigation indicate the death was suicide.

"It is more desirable to send the former president off in an honorable and courteous way befitting a former president and to allow as many people as possible to pay reverence and praise him," Cheon Ho-seon, a spokesman for Roh when he was president, said in a statement.

Local media said the government and family were looking to hold the funeral on Friday for Roh, a self-taught lawyer who rose from rural poverty and won the presidency backed by a generation of students who hit the streets to fight for democracy in the 1980s.

Perhaps Roh's most celebrated moment came when he went to Pyongyang in 2007 for a summit with Kim Jong-il in what was only the second meeting of leaders of the divided peninsula.

North Korea reported on Roh's death on Sunday, saying in a two-sentence dispatch: "Media at home and abroad are linking the motive of his death with the mental burden caused by the intensive investigation of the prosecution."

Roh was questioned last month by prosecutors on suspicion that his family took about $6 million in bribes from a shoe company CEO, which tarnished a reputation he tried to nurture of being a reformer who wanted to clean up government.

The South Korean public largely saw Roh as an ineffective leader whose government was marred by numerous missteps and overwhelmingly voted to replace him with a conservative businessman who pledged to undo Roh's economic policies.

The likelihood of suicide could boost sympathy for opponents of his successor President Lee Myung-bak, whose hardline policies have largely overturned the more accommodating approach of Roh in dealings with North Korea and strike-prone labor unions.

Mourners in Seoul paid respects to Roh at the weekend while tearful residents of his southeast Bongha Village hometown lined the streets when a coffin carrying Roh's body arrived back from hospital on Saturday.

--Reuters

QX179R SG

Emotional funeral for South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun

SEOUL, South Korea – A sea of wailing mourners filled the streets of Seoul for the funeral Friday of former President Roh Moo-hyun, whose suicide six days earlier amid a deepening corruption probe plunged South Korea into grief and anger.

Heads bowed, thousands took part in a solemn ceremony in the courtyard of the 14th-century Gyeongbok Palace before the hearse carrying Roh's body headed to a grassy plaza outside City Hall for emotional public rites attended by a reported 500,000 people. Riot police later moved in as the crush of mourners delayed the hearse from leaving the capital.

Police dispatched some 21,000 officers to quell any protests by Roh supporters who accuse conservative political opponents led by President Lee Myung-bak of driving the liberal former leader to his death with the bribery investigation.

The criticism comes as Lee faces an increasingly belligerent North Korea, which just two days after Roh's death carried out a nuclear test in a move widely condemned as a violation of U.N. resolutions.

Roh, 62, died May 23 after throwing himself off a cliff behind his home in the southern village of Bongha. Roh, president from 2003 to 2008, recently had been questioned about allegations he and his family accepted $6 million in bribes during his presidency.

He denied the bribery accusations, but they weighed heavily on a man who prided himself on his record as a "clean" politician in a country struggling to shake a deeply rooted culture of corruption.

The suicide stunned the nation of 49 million, where the outspoken Roh — a self-taught former human rights lawyer who swept into office on a populist tide — was celebrated as a leader for the people and was a favorite among young South Koreans for standing up to Washington.

Though many were critical of his antiestablishment ways, others rallied around his efforts to promote democracy, fight corruption and facilitate rapprochement with North Korea.

Roh "lived a life dedicated entirely to human rights, democracy and fight against authoritarianism," Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said at the palace funeral. "Our people won't forget what you accomplished for the country and the people despite a number of hardships."

Last weekend, Roh supporters refused to let Han and others from the ruling Grand National Party pay their respects in Bongha, with some dousing politicians with water and pelting them with eggs.

Roh supporters have called the probe against him "political revenge," and posters accusing Lee of driving Roh to his death plastered the walls of one Seoul subway station.

"I've never been so ashamed of being a citizen of this country — a country that kills its own president," said Won Seung-tae, 52, of Seoul. "It feels like we've lost all respect in pushing each other to extremes."

Opposition lawmakers jeered Lee as he and his wife approached the altar Friday to pay their respects.

"President Lee Myung-bak, apologize!" opposition lawmaker Baek Won-woo yelled, jumping to his feet and cursing Lee before security guards hauled him away. "This is political revenge, a political murder!"

A somber Lee looked back momentarily and hesitated before laying a white chrysanthemum on the altar and bowing before Roh's portrait. Lee had called Roh's death "tragic" upon learning of the suicide Saturday.

Roh's death triggered a wave of grief across South Korea, overshadowing the nuclear threat from North Korea's test blast Monday.

At City Hall, sobbing mourners wore yellow paper hats with images of Roh and waved yellow handkerchiefs as they watched the funeral on large monitors. The plaza was awash in yellow, Roh's campaign color.

"I respected him. He was a person who never compromised with injustice," said Chang Min-ki, 30, a yellow scarf tied around his neck. "I feel like I've lost everything."

The funeral procession began at dawn in Roh's hometown. Villagers lined Bongha's streets as the hearse blanketed with white chrysanthemums departed for the capital.

More than 2,500 were invited to a formal ceremony in the courtyard of the stately palace in the heart of ancient Seoul, where Roh's portrait sat on a bed of 1 million chrysanthemums laid in the shape of a Rose of Sharon, South Korea's national flower.

Roh's suicide note, in which he begs his wife and two children, "Don't be too sad" and describes his suffering as "unbearable," was read aloud.

Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns chanted prayers as part of the multifaith ceremony reflective of South Korea's changing modern history, where Confucian mourning traditions mix with Christian, shamanistic and Buddhist rites.

Roh's prime minister, Han Myung-sook, apologized for "not protecting" the late leader.

"We are sorry, we love you and we were happy with you," said Han, South Korea's first female prime minister, her voice trembling with emotion. "Please rest in peace."

At the plaza outside the City Hall that Lee built, performers in hemp mourning outfits carried out traditional Confucian rites designed to send Roh's spirit to heaven and to comfort his soul. As his hearse moved through the crowd, mourners showered it with airplanes and cranes made of yellow origami.

As some screamed "Down with Lee Myung-bak," riot police began moving in to break up the crowd before the hearse was able to depart.

Roh's ashes were to return to his village to be buried with a small gravestone as he wished.

TV showed the funeral live, as well as footage of Roh in more lighthearted moments: serenading his wife with a guitar, feeding ducklings and taking his granddaughter for a bike ride.

South Koreans mourned online, too, with some portals carrying live broadcasts of the funeral and users flooding bulletin boards and Roh's own Web site with hundreds of thousands of condolence messages.

"You didn't bow to any other country but you bowed to us citizens. You'll always be the father of the nation," wrote one user, Choi Jae-chul. "Rest in peace and please protect South Korea from heaven."

--AP

QX179R SG

Thousands of SKoreans mourn as Roh's ashes buried

SEOUL (AFP) - - Tens of thousands of South Koreans bade their final farewell to former president Roh Moo-Hyun, who leapt off a cliff to his death in May while facing corruption allegations.

A crowd estimated by police at 30,000 gathered as the former liberal leader's ashes were buried on a hillside near his retirement home in Bongha village close to the southeast coast.

Live footage showed mourners filling up seats near the burial site and spilling onto nearby hillsides, many of them weeping.

Roh, who held office from 2003 until 2008, took his own life on May 23. His dramatic death sparked a huge national outpouring of grief despite low popularity ratings towards the end of his term.

The self-educated lawyer and rights activist was credited with easing authoritarianism and advancing democracy. He pushed for reconciliation with North Korea and held a summit with its leader Kim Jong-Il in 2007.

Roh also campaigned against corruption. But on April 30, in a nationally televised spectacle, state prosecutors had questioned him about six million dollars which his family members received from a wealthy shoe manufacturer.

Roh never admitted personal wrongdoing but apologised on his family's behalf.

Supporters said Roh, 62, was publicly humiliated by a politically motivated probe under the current conservative government despite what they called a lack of evidence against him personally. Prosecutors denied political motives.

Roh's ashes had been kept at a Buddhist sanctuary at Bongha since his funeral, which attracted an estimated 130,000 people to central Seoul. They were buried 49 days after his death in accordance with Buddhist custom.

Sun Jin-Kyu, head of the sanctuary, said Roh fell victim to attacks from the establishment and conservatives.

"You are a martyr who fought for the underprivileged," he said in a mourning speech.

Following religious rites, relatives and ministers in Roh's government, including former prime minister Han Myung-Sook, took turns to lay wreaths before his portrait.

When video footage showing Roh playing a guitar and singing an activist's song was played, some sang along before bursting into tears.

Others carried banners mourning Roh's death or flew yellow paper planes, his campaign colour in 2002.

A white celadon pottery urn containing the ashes was placed inside a stone coffin before relatives took turns shovelling earth onto it. The ceremony ended with a 21-gun salute.

A small and humble gravestone was set up as Roh requested in a poignant suicide note.

Separate ceremonies were held at major Buddhist temples and churches in Seoul and other regions, attended by leading politicians as well as ordinary people who could not travel to Roh's home town.