Untimely end to Roh’s last fight
President Roh Moo-hyun at his inauguration in 2003.
The challenges changed over the years, from the financial hardship he faced as a child and the political conflicts he took on as a budding lawmaker, to the pressures of leading a nation.
But when confronted with a probe into his integrity, he gave in.
On a damp Saturday morning last weekend, former President Roh Moo-hyun jumped 30 meters (98.4 feet) to his death after hiking along the cliffs near his home at Bongha, South Gyeongsang.
He had spent the last weeks of his life dealing with the fallout from an investigation into his alleged corruption and, it seems, the pressure proved too much.
In his 20-year political career, Roh often made the headlines, dropping one shocker after another with his uncompromising behavior and outspoken personality. But the end of his life provided the biggest shock of all.
“I have sunk into an inescapable swamp. You shouldn’t fall into this mire with me. You should let go of me,” the former president wrote in his last posting on his Web site (www.knowhow.or.kr) on April 22.
Humble beginnings
Roh was born the youngest of five children in the impoverished village of Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, on Sept. 1, 1946. His father Roh Pan-seok and mother Lee Sun-rye ran a small fruit garden. As with most households in the village, the family barely scraped a living. The school register at Daechang Elementary School reads: “[He is] from a small farmer’s household with low-class living conditions.”
But his academic brilliance was evident. His second grade teacher Kim Jeong-ok reported that “he is excellent in all courses, but cries often.” But he also often missed classes, citing “household chores” as the reason.
His intelligence stood out even more in middle school. In one evaluation, a teacher said Roh had a “brilliant brain, excellent grades, leadership skills, progressiveness, and a sense of justice.” But teachers also commented that he was “uncooperative,” “self-righteous,” and “anxious,” a prophetic indication of the mixed evaluation he would later receive as national leader.
“I wasn’t the only one who was poor, but for some reason, I took poverty in an extremely serious manner. I think that’s when I start to think subconsciously that I must get out of poverty and help others escape, too,” Roh was once quoted saying.
Roh won a scholarship to Busan Commercial High School, now called Gaesung High School, and after graduation, he got a job at a small firm. But he didn’t last. He quit after a month and a half to pursue bigger and better dreams.
Seeking a better life
In 1966, with his eyes now set on passing the bar exam, Roh built a small house for himself at the foot of a mountain in his hometown and dived into studies.
It took him nine years, two failures, and long labor at factory construction sites to earn the money to buy the law books he needed. He passed the bar exam in 1975.
In those nine years, Roh did more than just study. He had also completed his military duty, from 1968 to 1971. After his discharge, he met Kwon Yang-sook. They got married in 1973.
President Roh meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007.
Life must have been good. He won his cases and he earned a lot of money, as he had planned.
“Our dream was that once I become a lawyer, we would live an affluent life with a villa in the country,” he once said.
But he made mistakes, as he later admitted. A woman asked Roh to take her case. Her husband had been wrongfully accused of fraud. Roh took the case for 600,000 won ($481), but the woman later asked to cancel because her husband and his accuser had reached a settlement. But Roh had already spent the money, and he never gave it back.
“I would very much like to ask for forgiveness from that woman, now probably white-haired and elderly,” Roh wrote in his autobiography, “Honey, Help Me.” (Honey here refers to his wife, with the Korean word yeobo meaning wife.)
Challenging the country
The biggest turning points in Roh’s career arrived unannounced.
In 1981, Roh took over the so-called Burim Case. Thirty people in a book club had been arrested and confined without a warrant, beaten and tortured for weeks for alleged “pro-communist” activities.
It was Roh’s first case involving state affairs, and the experience transformed him.
“Their bodies were covered with deep blue bruises. It seemed they couldn’t trust even me, their lawyer. They looked at me in fear,” Roh reminisced. “[The case] was the biggest turning point in my life.”
Putting behind the comforts of life as a successful lawyer, Roh chose the rough road of defending human rights under the military dictatorship. He had literally become a “street lawyer,” entrusting his office to Moon Jae-in, a fellow lawyer later to serve as presidential chief of staff during Roh’s office.
“From 1985, he was determined to lead the life of a ‘commoner,’ leaving his car at home, taking the bus and so on,” Moon recollected in 2002.
He also revealed a fiery passion when dealing with the government authorities at what he saw as total injustice.
But such activities during the 1980s came at a price. In 1987, when Roh was investigating the death of a worker at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering allegedly shot while protesting, he was arrested for alleged “interference of a third party” and “interruption of a funeral.”
As a punishment, his law practice was suspended.
His actions, though, didn’t go unnoticed. Students and workers protesting against the military dictatorship that ran Korea, as well as politicians seeking a breath of fresh air, saw in Roh a talent that others might rally around.
Political ups and downs
The retired former president last year. [JoongAng Ilbo]
On Kim’s recommendation, Roh was elected a member of the National Assembly in 1988. Later that year, he came to even greater attention when he grilled figures like former President Chun Doo Hwan, and Chung Ju-yung, founder of Korea’s Hyundai group, in an aggressive yet logical manner live on television.
But in the following years, Roh experienced tough political battles because he stuck to policies that included anti-regionalism and anti-favoritism. His fortunes took a subsequent nosedive after he severed ties with Kim Young-sam. He failed to get re-elected to the National Assembly and found himself in the wilderness.
During these years, Roh was nicknamed “Fool Roh Moo-hyun” but he also attracted supporters who admired his values.
In 2000, Roh became Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (now divided into Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) on the recommendation of former President Kim Dae-jung, who had taken notice of the former human rights lawyer.
Then in 2003, Roh won 49 percent of the vote to win the Blue House.
“The era of cheating and privilege is over. We will put an end to a distorted culture that allows justice to be defeated and opportunists to prosper,” Roh said in his inaugural speech on Feb. 25, 2003.
But his five-year tenure as president was also a series of tough fights. He and his new ideas, such as reshaping the political landscape and scattering authority to different groups, clashed with the opposition parties at the National Assembly, prosecutors and the media.
Just a year into Roh’s term of office, opposition parties tried to impeach him for voicing support for the ruling Uri Party ahead of the parliamentary election. The Constitutional provisions mandate presidential impartiality in Assembly elections.
But the public largely opposed moves to impeach Roh. After the Uri Party won a majority in the election in April 2004, the Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment decision the following month and restored Roh’s full powers as a nation’s leader.
Perhaps one of the highlights of Roh’s tenure was the inter-Korean summit that took place in October 2007, the second summit since the historic one in 2000, when Roh and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed on new measures to boost inter-Korean relations.
Final days
After resigning from office in February last year, Roh and his wife moved back to the village where he grew up. He built a villa, led a rustic life and greeted tourists. His decision to forego a heavy security detail in the capital marked a break with past Korean presidents.
But dark clouds were gathering on the horizon. Allegations of corruption dragged his whole family into the limelight and his reputation took an even greater battering than when he was the nation’s leader
“If you get to know, the essence of a politician, Roh Moo-hyun is quite all right. Please don’t leave the seed to dry up, instead give it some love,” Roh said as he left the Blue House and headed to the new home.
Roh came to an untimely end, close to the village where as he boy he had grown up with grand dreams.
A complex figure, he leaves behind him controversies that may never be resolved. Only time will tell what kind of man Roh really was.
By Park Sung-hee, Kim Hyung-eun [hkim@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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