South Koreans mourn ex-leader after suicide

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — 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 to 2008, 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-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 coffin to the community center near his birthplace of Gimhae, some 280 miles 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.

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