Former S. Korean President Apologizes for Scandal By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 29, 2009 SEOUL ― Former President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea apologized on Thursday as he presented himself for questioning by state prosecutors in a corruption scandal that has already landed some of his relatives and aides in jail. With his appearance on Thursday at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Mr. Roh became the third former South Korean president to be summoned and questioned by prosecutors for alleged corruption. “I am ashamed of myself,” said Mr. Roh, who had repeatedly called for a clean government during his five-year term that ended in early 2008. “I apologize for disappointing the people.” But Mr. Roh, 62, so far has not admitted to the bribery charges that have been brought by prosecutors. His apology was typical of a South Korean politician who did not admit to wrongdoing but whose image has been tainted by a corruption scandal implicating aides and relatives. Mr. Roh made his comment to reporters at Bongha, his native village, on the southern coast of South Korea, before he boarded a bus to Seoul. Villagers and supporters lined along a road, shouting his name, waving yellow scarves and balloons and throwing yellow roses before the bus. They yelled or carried slogans denouncing what they believed is a political plot to discredit Mr. Roh.Similar crowds, as well as people calling for Mr. Roh’s arrest, greeted himas his bus pulled into the prosecutors’ office in Seoul after a six-hour drive. He did not respond to questions from journalists before entering the building. The nation’s major television stations interrupted their regular programs to provide live updates on Mr. Roh’s five-hour bus ride to the prosecutors’ office. Prosecutors deny that their probe is politically motivated. They believe that Mr. Roh, while he was president, solicited a total of $6 million from a shoe manufacturer, payments that allegedly went to his wife, his son and his brother’s son-in-law. Mr. Roh maintained that the money received from Park Yeon-cha, the businessman who is under arrest on separate charges of bribery and tax evasion, was either borrowed by his wife to pay debts or was legitimately invested in a company owned by his brother’s son-in-law. Mr. Roh said he did not know about the transactions until after he retired. Mr. Roh’s image has been questioned in recent weeks as several of his aides and relatives were arrested or questioned on charges of taking bribes. His elder brother also was arrested in December on bribery charges. All former South Korean presidents over the past three decades have been imprisoned or had their reputations stained by corruption charges involving themselves, their relatives or confidants. Most of the scandals have been exposed during their successors’ terms. A day before Mr. Roh’s summoning, his successor as president, the incumbent Lee Myung-bak, suffered a humiliating blow to his popularity when his Grand National Party won none of five seats up for grabs in parliamentary re-elections held across the country on Wednesday. Mr. Roh’s case, which involves a relatively unknown businessman, appeared minor compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo received from some of the nation’s biggest conglomerates. Mr. Chun and Mr. Roh Tae-woo, both former generals and friends, were investigated by prosecutors in 1995. They were imprisoned for bribery and later pardoned. (The two Rohs are not related.) Mr. Roh Moo-hyun’s two immediate predecessors, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, also had brushes with scandal when their sons were imprisoned for bribery. They themselves were not indicted but apologized because political leaders were expected to take moral responsibility for family members’ wrongdoing. Unlike his predecessors who tried to live low-profile lives after retirement, Mr. Roh maintained a Web site and has attracted daily crowds of supporters and tourists, many of whom believe he was the country’s cleanest and most democratic president. “You should now discard me,” the humiliated Mr. Roh wrote on his Web site on April 22, after the sandal broke. “I no longer symbolize the values you pursue. I am no longer qualified to speak for such things as democracy, progressiveness and justice.”