A boy politician, smart and stubborn

Bongha village in Bonsan-ri, Jinyeong-eup, Kimhae-gun, South Gyeongsang province, is the hometown of the Millennium Democratic Party's presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun. It is a typical poor peasant village, 4 kilometers from town: About 40 houses with worn-out roofs are scattered about.

Mr. Roh was born on Sept. 1, 1946, the young-est of the three sons and two daughters of Roh Pan-seok and Lee Sun-rye, owners of an orchard.

The Rohs moved to the town from Gwangju eight generations ago, Geon-pyeong, Mr. Roh's second elder brother said. He still lives near the house where Mr. Roh was born. "Mother was delivered of Moo-hyun with difficulty, because she was 43 years old," the brother recalled. "Back then, the chief of Namsan Hospital from the town came all the way to our house for the delivery."

Mr. Roh's father had worked in a tire plant in Japan for three years at the end of the colonial period. He was known for his knowledge of Chinese literature, and was deeply interested in his children's education.

The future candidate's elementary school record read: "The Rohs are a small farming family of the lower classes, but are enthusiastic about education."

Mr. Roh's eldest brother, Yeong-hyeon, attended Busan University Law School, the village's only college student. The parents paid the tuition by selling off their rice paddies. But Yeong-hyeon gave up studying for the bar examination short of the goal.

Geon-pyeong, the second son, said his father was "timid and far from greedy," not very financially capable. The mother, however, was very clever, the son said. "Mother used to sell vegetables to support her five children."

In a 1994 autobiographical essay, "Honey, Could You Help Me Please?" Mr. Roh wrote: "My mother led a life full of tears and regrets. Poverty and hardships, relatives' cold treatment and influential villagers' tyranny were among the stories that I heard from my mother."

The boy was praised from an early age for his brains. "When Moo-hyun was 6," Geon-pyeong said, "he memorized 1,000 Chinese characters, and the people said he was a genius." His first-grade teacher wrote that the boy had "talents in all subjects, especially presentation of his opinions" ?a handy skill for a future politician.

In the sixth grade, he won his first election, being chosen student council president with 302 votes out of 502 ballots. "That experience brought confidence to me for stepping out in front of other people," Mr. Roh said.

His elementary school friend, Lee Jae-wu, reminisced about the election. "Moo-hyun made the children laugh by saying, 'I may be short because I ate only barley rice growing up poor, but remember, the smaller the pepper, the spicier it is.' " Mr. Roh's childhood nickname was "stone bean," apparently because he was small but tough.

"My mother used to say that she had a splendid dream before Moo-hyun was born, but she never said what it was about," said Yeong-ok, Mr. Roh's second sister. "She always said we will see when the dream comes true."

Mr. Roh was healthy until the fourth grade, but then he started to suffer from stomachaches. He suffered further humiliation because the family could not pay tuition on time. Praise from his teachers began to be tempered. "Smart but not lively," "talented in all subjects but lazy," and "mentally mature but physically weak," were the evaluations.

One shameful incident from fifth grade remains in Mr. Roh's memory. Most children carried their books in shabby bags; only a few from rich families had real bookbags made with cloth and rubber. One day, Mr. Roh and a friend found a fancy, new bookbag and ripped it with razor blades. The bag's owner was upset, and the teacher, brandishing a stick, tried to find out the wrongdoer. Mr. Roh says he refused to confess.

He was stubborn but also a leader. "The kids were divided into two groups ?rich town kids and poor peasant kids. I was always leading the poor folks," Mr. Roh says. Similarly, he regards himself today as the "presidential candidate of the populace."

As a middle-schooler in 1960, Mr. Roh was punished for leading children in a boycott of a school essay contest commemorating the birthday of Syngman Rhee, Korea's president. Mr. Rhee was campaigning for re-election, and Mr. Roh said the essay contest seemed to him a propaganda trick. He was made to write an apology; he wrote a letter, but it didn't say he was sorry.

Mr. Roh has always thought very highly of himself. In an elementary school calligraphy contest he handed in his writing, although he was not satisfied with it, because he was told that he would get only one piece of paper. Then the son of a teacher got another paper for a second chance and won the highest award. Mr. Roh was awarded second place. "I was so furious that I returned the award," Mr. Roh recalls. "I was scolded for rude behavior and even got slapped."

Mr. Roh's mother once told a monthly magazine, "My son never ate leftover food. He used only his own spoon. Back then, living was tough, and other kids didn't really care about those things."

Teachers' opinions varied. One called Mr. Roh "independent, strong-willed, with a strong sense of justice." Another commented, "sharp-minded, good judgment but uncooperative, with an extreme sense of self-righteousness." In first grade, his teacher predicted that he would make a good politician. His family wanted him to become a soldier. Mr. Roh in second grade wrote that his dream was to be a "businessman."

Mr. Roh's middle school records show that he did well in most subjects, except for physical education. His family's possessions were meager ?a few acres of orchard, a small chicken farm, some land.

Now the family fortunes turned worse. The middle brother had to quit school, and the small peach orchard was taken away by debts. Roh Moo-hyun himself took a year off from school. He returned in 1962 but his attendance record made a teacher mark him as "delinquent." But he won a scholarship given by a Busan businessman, Kim Ji-tae, and entered Busan Commercial High School.

"He was the man who laid out the stepping stones for my life today," Mr. Roh says of Mr. Kim. In 1986 after he had become a lawyer, Mr. Roh successfully represented Mr. Kim's heirs in court against the National Tax Service, recovering 11.7 billion won ($8.8 million) for them in overpaid taxes.

As a high-schooler, Roh Moo-hyun couldn't afford lodging in Busan. He got a job as a night guard at a fire extinguisher company and divided his nights among the company office, his married sister's home and even his classroom. Mr. Roh says there were times when he couldn't even open his mouth to eat breakfast in the morning because he had clenched his teeth so tight during the night to bear the cold.

"I more or less finished my first year. It was in second that I started playing hooky." Mr. Roh wrote of his high school days in "Honey, Could You Help Me Please?" "I'd miss school exams and smoke and drink with my friends. My grades fell below average. They were days of aimless wandering."

He resumed studying in the third year and his class ranking revived to 59 out of 502 students. As he knew he had to earn money for his family, he chose to prepare for a career straight out of high school instead of going to college.

During his last year in high school, Mr. Roh got into a quarrel with a first-grade student, Choi Do-sul. When the student slapped his face, Roh Moo-hyun impulsively climbed on the desk and started to deliver an address reciting formal charges against the wrongdoer. Sometime in the 1980s the two met again by chance. Mr. Roh offered Mr. Choi, who was badly off at the time, an office job. Mr. Choi is still working as director of Mr. Roh's Busan headquarters.

At graduation from high school, Mr. Roh was snubbed for a job at the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. He had been so sure of acceptance that he had already treated his friends to a celebration meal. His pride was crushed when the job went to a friend whom Mr. Roh regarded as his inferior. He worked at a small fishing net company for a few weeks but his wage didn't pay for his room. That was when he decided to study in earnest for the national judiciary examination.

"I couldn't decide what to do with the 6,000 won I earned," he wrote in his autobiography, "Common Sense or Hope, Roh Moo-hyun." "I wondered whether I should buy clothes or shoes, but finally bought a guitar and a used textbook for the judiciary exam. The rest, I used up in drinking and going to a movie. Then I headed for my home in Jinyeong."

by Special Reporting Team