SEOUL Former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, who died Saturday after falling from a mountain in a possible suicide, was the subject of a multi-million dollar corruption probe.
Police said they were investigating whether Roh, who was in office from 2003-2008, killed himself after falling from a rocky cliff behind his retirement home at Bongha near the southeast coast.
A former aide said the ex-leader, 62, jumped off a cliff after leaving a suicide note.
The corruption probe centred around a payment worth one million dollars to Roh's wife from a wealthy shoemaker, and a payment by the same man worth five million dollars to the husband of one of Roh's nieces.
Roh, who was questioned as a suspect by prosecutors on April 30, had apologised for his familys involvement in the case but had not admitted personal wrongdoing.
'I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens,' he said at the time. 'I am sorry to have disappointed you.'Roh worked his way up from a farming village to the presidency, but in many ways remained an outsider whose bluntness alienated both political opponents and the public.
Born on August 6, 1946 to a poor family near the south-eastern city of Gimhae, he left school early but took odd jobs and studied at night to escape rural poverty.
He chose the law as his path but found his true voice as a politician defending the oppressed against the army-backed dictatorship of the mid-1980s.
Roh's life changed in 1981 when he met dissident students whose toenails had been torn off during two months of torture for possessing banned literature.
He challenged the authority of President Chun Doo-Hwan, and made headlines in 1987 when he was jailed and suspended from his law practice on charges of abetting striking shipyard workers.
Amid nationwide protests that year which ushered in democracy, Roh became a full-time politician.
He was elected to parliament in 1988 and won fame in his first year during a parliamentary hearing on the past wrongdoings of Chuns government, when he spoke out against the dictatorship and cross-questioned witnesses.
In the early 1990s he backed a petition calling for US troops to leave Korea.
Roh scored a dramatic upset victory in the 2002 presidential election, partly by harnessing the power of the Internet to swell support.
After inauguration in early 2003, he described his priorities as the emergence of his country as an East Asian economic and technological hub and reconciliation with communist North Korea.
He also sought a policy of 'balanced diplomacy' by lessening dependence on long-time ally the United States.
Roh pushed a generally liberal agenda, calling for a fairer distribution of wealth and characterising himself as a fighter for the underprivileged. But his aggressive and provocative remarks, coupled with a lack of skill in building political ties, often led to confrontations.
After a year in office, Roh became the first South Korean president to be impeached for an alleged breach of election laws. He survived the impeachment and propelled his party to a sweeping victory in general elections in 2004.
Roh deserved praise for breaking the deep-rooted relationship between politicians and traditional power-holders by reducing the power of the conservative media and conglomerates, said Choi Jin, a Korea University professor.
But he was also faulted for economic mismanagement. In February 2007 he quit the Uri party he had helped found, apparently acknowledging he had become a political liability in a presidential election year.
By the end of his single five-year term the popularity of Roh and his liberal supporters was low. Conservative Lee Myung-Bak heavily defeated the liberal candidate in the December 2007 presidential poll.
Roh's policy of engagement with North Korea came in for criticism after its missile launches and nuclear test in 2006. But he refused to abandon the approach and held a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in 2007.
'The key to the peace strategy is the wisdom of co-existence. We should boldly and confidently engage North Korea. Confrontation will achieve nothing,' he said.—AFP.
