Roh Moo-hyun
Roh Moo-hyun was a self-taught labour lawyer who became president, was impeached and reinstated, and killed himself two years after leaving office. He was the son of poor farmers, never went to university, and passed the bar by studying alone. He defended students tortured under the dictatorship, entered parliament in 1988, and made his name by refusing to run in safe seats: he stood repeatedly in a hostile region and lost, which is what made him credible. He won the presidency in 2002 on an internet-organised campaign among younger voters and a promise to move on from the old power centres. He moved government ministries out of Seoul to a new administrative city, withheld the customary favours from the large newspapers, and held a live televised debate with a room of prosecutors in his first months in office. In 2004 the National Assembly impeached him for an election-law remark, his party won the election held during the suspension, and the Constitutional Court restored him. North Korea tested a nuclear device in October 2006, in the middle of his engagement policy, and he kept the Kaesong industrial complex open and met Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang the following year. He also signed a free trade agreement with the United States and sent troops to Iraq, both of which his own supporters opposed. After leaving office he went back to his home village and grew vegetables. A prosecution investigation into money taken by his family ran through the spring of 2009 in daily public leaks. In May he walked up the hill behind his house at dawn and jumped from a cliff, leaving a note asking that nobody be blamed.
- Lived: 1946 CE – 2009 CE
- Nationality: South Korean
- Roles: head_of_state, politician
