Former President Roh Moo-hyun, embroiled in a widening corruption scandal, jumped to his death Saturday morning after leaving a brief note, his lawyer said. He was 62.
Roh threw himself off a 30-meter-high cliff in a mountain behind his home in Bongha Village, Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, around 6:40 a.m. while hiking with a security guard.
“Former President Roh left his house at 5:45 a.m. and appears to have jumped off a rock at around 6:40 a.m., while hiking on the Mt. Bongha,” Moon Jae-in, Roh’s lawyer and former secretary, said in a nationally televised statement.
A police officer quoted the security guard as saying that his fall was “too abrupt” for him to block it.
Right before jumping, Roh asked the accompanying guard to borrow a cigarette, police said, citing the guard as saying.
The note Roh left reads, “Many people have been suffering too much because of me. The sufferings that will come are also too enormous. I cannot do anything due to bad heath. I cannot read nor write. Life and death are just one piece of the nature, aren’t they?”
Roh also said: “Don’t be sorry. Don’t blame anyone. It’s all destiny. Please cremate my body and leave just a small tombstone near my home.”
His aides found the note saved in a file in his computer. The note indicates his suicide was premeditated.
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Former President Roh Jumps to his Death