Roh Moo Hyun Dead, an Apparent Suicide

Update 2:   Here’s a translation of Roh’s suicide note.

“I’m indebted to too many people. The pain that I caused to so many people is too great. The pain in the coming days is unfathomable,” Roh said in the note disclosed by police.

“Due to my frail health, I cannot do anything. I cannot read or write. Don’t be too sad. Don’t blame anyone. Life and death are identical parts of nature. It’s fate,” the note said. It also conveyed his desire to be cremated and that a small headstone be set up near his home.  [Yonhap]

Meanwhile, I’m starting to ask myself if Roh’s entire presidency was one long suicide note.  Roh was always very public about his struggles with The Black Dog, and I wince today to read that in November 2006, I had described one of those as a “suicidal ideation.” Roh was a man of great intelligence and idealism who seemed to mean well, but whose manifest weakness of soul placed him completely out of his league.  Roh always reminded me of a peacock trying to eke out his place within a flock of buzzards at a kill.  He often seemed an accidental president who, having campaigned for the office, shrank in fear from the threat of having greatness thrust upon him.

After so many years in which Korea’s leaders, North and South alike, had brought little to office except the will to power, I can understand why Korean voters might have been attracted to a president who wielded power with reluctance.  But what had at first seemed like a reluctance to wield power soon looked much more like a reluctance to hold the office to which he’d been elected, and even betrayed a lack of will to live.  In September 2005, after Roh spoke publicly of “ending the Roh era and starting a new era,” I used a phase that I certainly regret today:  I called Roh “a ledge case.”  Still, I wonder how many observers of Roh’s presidency didn’t see this coming.

I also wonder if Roh might have done much better things for his country had he never become president.  He might still be alive today, as, I would add, might plenty of North Korean refugees he turned away from South Korea.  It’s not inappropriate that we mourn them, too, even today.  In Roh’s prostrate leadership and in his policies toward North Korea, he seemed to impute his own lack of will upon the nation he was elected to lead.

And having said all that, my wife and I are both in disbelief that this happened.

Update 1: He jumped:

The Pusan National University Hospital, where the former president was rushed to after his fall, announced that Roh arrived at its emergency room at 8:13 a.m. and died at 9:30 a.m. from external head injuries. [….]

“Roh left his home at 5:45 a.m. to go hiking. He appears to have jumped from a mountain rock at 6:40 a.m. He was accompanied by a bodyguard at that time,” said Moon Jae-in, who had served as presidential chief of staff during the Roh presidency.

“He left behind a brief suicide note,” Moon told reporters at a hospital news conference. [….]

Paek Seung-wan, chief of Pusan National University Hospital, said in the same news conference that Roh died due to a head injury.

“At the time of his arrival at the hospital at 8:23 a.m., he was unconscious and couldn’t breathe on his own. A laceration measuring 11 centimeters was found on the front part of his head. Doctors attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation but suspended it at 8:30 a.m. as he failed to recover,” said Paek.

“A brain contusion was also found, but head injury was confirmed as the direct cause of his death. In addition, fractures were found, including in the ribs and pelvis.” [Yonhap News]

Original Post:

Yonhap is reporting that former President Roh Moo Hyun is dead after a fall while hiking, and already, it is reported that a suicide note was found.  Roh was under criminal investigation in an influence scandal.

I’m not going to deny now or ever that I loathed Roh Moo Hyun the politician.  History will judge his policies responsible for the deaths of thousands of North Koreans and for delaying the destiny of his nation to unite again.  Those feelings are in some natural tension with my sadness for those who loved Roh Moo Hyun the person, husband, and father.  Ultimately, suicide is a selfish act that victimizes those very people.

In Roh’s statecraft, there were always hints of something self-destructive in his character that would make confirmation of his suicide unsurprising.  How many times did Roh threaten to resign?  He first suggested it just months after his inauguration, in October 2003, then in December, provided his party were shown to have taken 10% as many illegal contributions as his opponents.  By 2007, he was saying that presidential terms of office were too long while denying that he would resign (it had become habitual to wonder by then).  And I’m certain I’ve missed several of Roh’s public expressions of self-pity that caused South Koreans to wonder whether Roh had the stomach for the job.

It’s eerie how inevitable this seemed, at least in retrospect.

Roh dies not only as the corruption of his presidency is investigated, but as its legacy — the appeasement of a mass-murdering tyrant and the perpetuation of his reign — is destroyed and discredited by the very beneficiaries of his largesse.

By tomorrow, rumors will swirl that the CIA pushed him.  Just watch.

3 Responses

  1. I caught this news here and quickly let my Korean wife have the computer so she could check the Korean papers – which gave me a little time to reflect.

    I’m somewhat ambivalent about the news: I agree with OFK and most likely other regular readers concerning Roh’s NK policy. I also got angry with his administration at times over the years due to their anti-US habit.

    But, this is all mitigated a good bit by the fact — Roh didn’t invent any of these. He just has a significant share of the blame:

    Kim Dae-Jung kicked the Sunshine Policy off in a major way – and even brought Clinton along to a significant extent. And the last two years of Bush’s presidency might not have brought back the full level of America’s Sunshine Policy, but it was wrongheaded to such an extent it makes it harder for me to lump too much damage onto Roh’s image for me.

    Roh’s legacy to me is now one of an enigma. I already didn’t understand the guy much after listening to him talk almost immediately after the 2002 election about how he thought he might not be cut out for the job and hinted at resigning.

    Him killing himself over what we can guess at now based on what we know is just as puzzling to me: He got caught in an influence pedaling scandal — whoopie-doo — since this is South Korea we’re talking about. Compared to previous president’s the amount he’s accused of amassing was a pittance. If Korean politicians made a habit of killing themselves over shame of taking money — it’d significantly reduce the overall population of the nation!!

    I can’t help but wonder if maybe Roh’s financial fortunes might have been even more damaged due to the economic downturn as well…???…

    We’ve seen a string of high profile suicides the last couple of years and some related to crashed fortunes. I wonder if we’ll find out Roh’s family fortune might have been crushed more than just the slush fund…???…

  2. The news reached me in the middle of the Magic-Cavs game. I have lots to say about this all as well…but will wait until tomorrow to write it all down and post it. Still shocked to hear this.