Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun plunged to his death off a ravine in what the police are now investigating as a suicide. He had left a short suicide note to his family. He was 62 years old. Roh was president of the country from 2003 until February 2008. Before his death, he was being implicated in a scandal involving an alleged case of bribery.

On April 30, Roh Moo-hyun appeared before the Public Prosecutor’s office in Seoul to declare his alleged involvement in a bribery scandal and apologized to South Koreans for what happened. Roh admitted that his wife, Kwon Yang-sook, had accepted money from Park Yeon-cha, head of the South Korean footwear company Taekwang Industry. Additionally, the former president of South Korea was under suspicion of having been aware of the $5 million that was handed over to his son, Roh Gun-ho, and his nephew, Cheol Yeon-ho.

During his five years in office, Roh sought to modernize the South Korean economy and make a final push for peace with North Korea. He held a historic summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, in search of reconciliation. At that summit, Roh and Kim agreed to promote ‘permanent peace’ in a historic declaration for the denuclearization of the peninsula, greater economic cooperation, and a peace treaty.

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Via ABC News