Roh Moo-hyun

Roh Moo-hyun (1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea between 2003 and 2008.

Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists in South Korea.

His electoral career later expanded to a focus on overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics, culminating in his election to the presidency.

He achieved a large following among younger internet users, which aided his success in the presidential election.

Roh was born into a poor farming family on 1 September 1946, in Bongha Village near Gimhae and Pusan, in what is now southeastern South Korea.

His ancestor was in Dongyang, Zhejiang.

His parents had three boys and two girls, and Roh was the youngest of his family.

In 1953, he entered Dae Chang Elementary School.

He received high grades, but was quite often absent from school to assist his parents.

While in sixth grade, with the encouragement of his school teacher, he became the president of the school.

As he entered Jin-yeong middle school, a writing contest was held to commemorate Syngman Rhee's birthday.

Roh tried to start a student movement against it, but was caught and suspended from the school.

Roh Moo-Hyun decided to become a lawyer due to the influence of his elder brother who had studied law but had died in a car accident.

Roh studied on his own to pass the bar exam in 1975 (South Korea does not currently require bar examinees to have graduated from college, university, or law school).

In 1977, he became a regional judge in Daejeon, but quit in 1978, and became a lawyer.

Roh's election was notable for the arrival in power of a new generation of Korean politicians, the so-called 386 Generation (people in their thirties, when the term was coined, who had attended university in the 1980s and who were born in the 1960s).

This generation had been veterans of student protests against authoritarian rule and advocated a conciliatory approach towards North Korea, even at the expense of good relations with the United States.

Roh himself was the first South Korean president to be born after the end of Japanese rule in Korea.

South Korea received the highest marks on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index under his administration.

In 1981, he defended students who had been tortured for suspicion of possession of contraband literature.

Following this he decided to become a human rights lawyer.

In 1985 he started to participate in civic movements by assuming permanent power of attorney on behalf of the Busan council of citizen democracy.

He opposed the autocratic regime in place at the time in South Korea, and participated in the pro-democracy June Democracy Movement in 1987 against Chun Doo-hwan.

The value of the South Korean won against the US dollar was the strongest during his administration since 1997.

In early 2003, he was quoted as saying, "After that defense, my life was totally changed. At first, even I couldn't believe that they had been tortured that harshly. However, when I saw their horrified eyes and their missing toenails, my comfortable life as a lawyer came to an end. I became a man that wanted to make a difference in the world."

With fellow human rights lawyers, he pointed out that this case was forged, then claimed that the National Security Act (South Korea) itself should be judged.

Roh died by suicide on 23 May 2009 when he jumped from a mountain cliff behind his home, after saying that "there are too many people suffering because of me" on a suicide note on his computer.

About 4 million people visited Roh's hometown Bongha Village in the week following his death.

His suicide was confirmed by police.

Public opinion on Roh has improved considerably since his death, which has taken into account his human rights background and national economic progress during his presidency.

Due to the strong currency, for the first time in history, South Korea became the world's 10th largest economy and exceeded the $20,000 milestone in nominal GDP per capita during his administration.

However, despite high expectations at the beginning of his presidency, Roh encountered strong opposition from both the opposition conservative Grand National Party and media, and he was frequently accused of incompetence.

As a result, many of Roh's policies, such as a plan to move the capital of South Korea and a plan to form a coalition with the opposition, made little progress.

Because of his poor performance in economy and diplomacy, Roh was not a popular president, having the worst approval rating on average ever recorded in South Korean political history.

His economic policy was often criticized for persisting with certain obsolete economic views and failing certain livelihood issues.

After leaving office, Roh returned to his hometown of Bongha Maeul.

He ran a duck farm and lived an ordinary life, sharing it through his blog.

He also ran a website called "Democracy 2.0" to promote healthy online discussions.

Fourteen months later, Roh was suspected of bribery by prosecutors, and the subsequent investigations attracted public attention.

In a 2019 Gallup Korea poll, Roh was cited as the most popular president in South Korean history amongst the general public.