사진은 2005년도에 한국을 방문한 부쉬 대통령부부와 함께 불국사 구경 하는 장면. Former South Korean President Is Dead in an Apparent Suicide Roh Was Entangled in Bribery Scandal Associated Press George W. Bush and Laura Bush toured Bulguksa Temple with Roh Moo-hyun and his wife Kwon Yang-sook in Gyeongju, South Korea in 2005. By EVAN RAMSTAD and SUNGHA PARK SEOUL - Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, a progressive politician known for clean behavior until getting caught up in a recent bribery scandal, died Saturday in an apparent suicide. An aide said Mr. Roh jumped from a mountain cliff near his rural home in a southern province and left a note to his family. Roh Moo-hyun has died after falling from a mountain cliff near his home. "I'm indebted to so many people," Mr. Roh wrote in the note, according to local media reports. Police said they were investigating his death as a possible suicide. South Koreans reacted to the news with shock. Some of Mr. Roh's political supporters stopped opposition politicians who tried to convey condolences to his family, a sign that his death could raise tension in a young democracy where political practices are relatively unsophisticated. Mr. Roh, 62 years old, was a self-taught lawyer who led the country from 2003 to 2008, a prosperous period of strong economic and business growth. He tried to extend his predecessor's legacy of outreach to neighboring North Korea. But last month, just over a year after leaving office, Mr. Roh came under investigation for allegedly taking about $6 million from a businessman in return for favors during his tenure as president. On April 8, Mr. Roh announced on his Web site that his wife received about $1 million from the key figure in the case. "I'm overwhelmed by shame," Mr. Roh wrote at the time. The investigation appeared to reduce Mr. Roh's ability to exert political influence. On April 22, he wrote on his Web site that he no longer felt "qualified to speak for things such as democracy, progressiveness and justice." Prosecutors questioned him for 14 hours on April 30, but they had not charged him at the time of his death. Around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, police said, Mr. Roh typed a suicide note on his computer that indicated he believed he had caused too much suffering and would be a burden on people for the rest of his life. "Don't be sorry," he wrote. "Don't resent anyone. It's destiny." He then went for a walk in the hills surrounding his home near the town of Gimhae in the southern part of the country. At about 6:40 a.m., standing on a rocky outcropping, Mr. Roh told a bodyguard to look at a group of people in a valley about 100 feet (30 meters) below and then jumped, police said. The bodyguard called for aid and an ambulance took Mr. Roh to Seyoung Hospital in Gimhae, and then to Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital in the nearby city of Yangsan. He arrived at 8:15 a.m. unconscious, with numerous fractures and a severe head injury, said Paek Seung-wan, the Yangsan hospital's president. Doctors and nurses tried for more than an hour to resuscitate him. He was declared dead at 9:30 a.m., Mr. Paek said. His death could aggravate South Korea's political divide. Mr. Roh was a hero to South Korea's nationalist left, a group that has been angry since the December 2007 election of conservative Lee Myung-bak to succeed Mr. Roh. Some left-wing politicians and Roh supporters blame Mr. Lee for the prosecutors' investigation of Mr. Roh. Mr. Lee issued a statement calling Mr. Roh's death a "national tragedy" and "a truly unbelievable, lamentable and deeply sad event." But in an early sign of potential political fallout from the incident, a crowd outside Mr. Roh's home on Saturday afternoon tore apart a memorial flower arrangement sent by Mr. Lee. The crowd also prevented Lee Hoi-chang, the conservative politician Mr. Roh defeated in the 2002 presidential election, from visiting Mr. Roh's family. South Korean Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han said in a statement that police are investigating the cause and circumstances of Mr. Roh's death. He said the corruption investigation of Mr. Roh will be halted. Mr. Roh grew up on a farm and never attended college. He taught himself law and passed the country's bar exam in 1975 without any formal training. He first came to national attention defending student activists who were detained and tortured by military leaders in the early 1980s. A political reformer throughout his career, Mr. Roh tried to break the regionalism that shapes South Korean politics by running for parliament in a district long dominated by conservatives. He lost, but the attempt appealed to South Koreans who wanted greater diversity in the nation's politics, creating a support base that proved crucial in his run for president in 2002. Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun appears at the Supreme Prosecutors' office for questioning on a corruption scandal April 30 in Seoul, South Korea. "He tried to break the mold," said Kang Won-taek, a political scientist at Soongsil University in Seoul. "He did not come from the establishment. He challenged the establishment." Mr. Roh was the fourth president elected in South Korea after the country became a constitutional democracy in 1987 -- and he was the first who wasn't directly involved in writing the constitution. His election was seen as the ascendancy of a new generation to power and he filled his administration with people who had been student activists in the 1980s. Prior to becoming president, Mr. Roh twice served in the National Assembly and became a cabinet minister for his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung. In the 2002 presidential race, Mr.Roh trailed for much of the campaign. But he took advantage of a wave of anti-American sentiment that rose a month before the election when two U.S. soldiers were acquitted of charges in a traffic accident that killed two South Korean girls earlier that year. In one debate after the verdict, Mr. Roh declared, "I have no intention of kowtowing to the U.S." He won by a margin of 2.3 percentage points. He had a fractious relationship with the U.S. and Japan, particularly over North Korea policy. Mr. Roh believed strongly in a program of economic assistance to the North with few strings attached and no public criticism of transgressions by Pyongyang. Mr. Roh staged a summit with the North's leader, Kim Jong Il, in October 2007, though the economic-aid agreement they signed was vaguely worded and had no incentives or penalties for not carrying it out. A policeman guards on the mountain rock from where former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun fell and died early on Saturday. Mr. Roh moved the South Korea-U.S. relationship forward on other levels, including writing a free-trade agreement and reshaping the defense alliance to give South Korea's military more control on the Korean peninsula. He also helped make it possible for South Korean tourists to visit the U.S. without a visa. On economic matters, Mr. Roh emphasized fairness and regional balance in development more than overall growth, opening himself to critics who said the country wasn't living up to its economic-growth potential. One of his main efforts to balance urban and rural areas, a plan to move much of the national government out of Seoul to a small town in the middle of the country, didn't pan out. Write to Evan Ramstad at [email protected] and SungHa Park at [email protected]