Roh Moo-hyun (1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was the 16th President of South Korea (in office from February 2003 to February 2008). His ancestral home is Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province, China; Born into a peasant family in Pong hae Village, Gimhae City, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, he attended Busan High School of Commerce in South Korea in his youth. After graduation, he served in the Korean Army. In 1988, he was elected to the 13th National Assembly of South Korea, thus officially entering politics, defeating The candidate of the New National Party of South Korea, Lee Huichang, to become president in December 2002, and was officially sworn in on February 25, 2003.
During Roh Moo-hyun's tenure, South Korea's economy maintained a growth rate of more than 4 percent. On the North Korean nuclear issue, it adheres to the sunshine policy pursued during kim dae-jung's administration. In October 2007, Roh Moo-hyun crossed the 38th Parallel on foot and traveled overland to North Korea to visit and hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in
He committed suicide by falling off a cliff on May 23, 2009.
Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun can be said to be a successful president in the history of South Korea, it is said that after quitting the political arena, he has achieved fame and success, and he can enjoy his old age in peace, but no one expected that the 63-year-old hero would choose to commit suicide.
There are many enemies in the judicial circles who come from a cold background, are engaged in lawyers, and are engaged in the judiciary
Roh Moo-hyun's ancestors held high official positions during the Joseon Dynasty, but lived in seclusion in Gyeongsangnam-do due to misunderstanding by the king. So he was a descendant of an exiled official. Roh Moo-hyun's father and wife worked together to farm sweet potatoes at the foot of a stone-reclaiming hill to make ends meet, barely making ends meet with flour and a meagre wage from working in a relief project for the poor. Roh Moo-hyun's father was introverted, docile and kind-hearted, and was a good gentleman.
In 1963, he was admitted to Busan Commercial High School as a scholarship student. His education career in Busan was even more difficult, with Roh Moo-hyun going to school during the day and working at a company at night, living on instant noodles every day.
In 1966, he graduated from the Busan High School of Commerce, which became Roh Moo-hyun's highest education, and also made him the lowest-educated of All Korea's presidents, after graduating from high school, Roh Moo-hyun was recruited to work for a fishing net company, but resigned a month and a half later due to dissatisfaction with the meager salary, and personally built a small hut on the hillside, while working around, immersed himself in self-study, preparing for the judicial examination.
From his experience, it is not difficult to see that Roh Moo-hyun later entered politics, so that he later became president, it can be said that he did not have any family background, and relied entirely on his own diligence and hard work.
In 1975, roh Moo-hyun passed seven consecutive judicial examinations, and in 1978, he opened a law firm in Busan, South Korea, where he worked as a lawyer on tax cases, and he gained a reputation in the region with a high success rate. At the same time, he participated in human rights activities, acted as a defense lawyer for student organizations, and provided free defense for the public. A turning point in Roh Moo-hyun's life was the defense of the "Bullin Incident."
In 1985, Roh Moo-hyun opened the "Labor Law Consultative Office" and began to participate in the labor movement.
In June 1987, Roh Moo-hyun became the permanent executive chairman of the busan headquarters of the group "Democratic Movement for Nationals".
During this time, Roh began to associate with democratization activists and students, as well as with opposition figures. Roh Moo-hyun was involved in the democratization movement after starting a labor law clinic in Busan, so much so that he was detained in 1987 for intervening in the death of Daewoo Shipbuilding Company Lee Seok-kyu, and only 21 days later was released, and he became a "street lawyer". At that time, he made a warm speech to the workers at the work tide, which left a deep impression.
As we all know, being a lawyer and opposing the side is the judiciary, and the defense of every judicial case is almost always a real-life contest with the people in the legal department, which makes Roh Moo-hyun guilty of many people in the judicial circle.
The fuse "Park Won Ci-men" incident
Park Won-ji
In 2004, Park Won-ji, president of South Korea's Tae kwang Industry, had a friendship with Roh Moo-hyun's brother Roh Jianping for more than 30 years, and in order to take roh Moo-hyun and develop his career rapidly, Park Won-ci paid bribes to Roh Moo-hyun's cronies through Roh Jianping, and paid a bribe of 700 million won to Roh Moo-hyun's close confidant Ahn Hee-jeong, bribing more than 20 people. In 2009, South Korean prosecutors found that Mr. Sang had once again remitted $5 million to Mr. Lu's eldest son-in-law.
Because these investigations involve President Roh Moo-hyun, and more and more political personnel are involved, many of them current senior officials and Roh Moo-hyun's cronies, which has caused an uproar in South Korea.
Prosecutors further investigated, and after Roh Moo-hyun exposed the collection of money through his wife, the first family immediately became the protagonist of "Park Won-mun". On April 9, 2009, when questioned by prosecutors, Park Yong-ci confessed that he had put $1 million into a bag and handed it to the Blue House at the request of Roh Moo-hyun, and that the specific manager was the former presidential general secretary, Jung Sang-moon. The money was allegedly sent directly to Roh Moo-hyun in a duffel bag inside the Blue House, and prosecutors believe that Roh moo-hyun accepted the money in fact.
On April 11, Roh Moo-hyun's wife, Kwon Leung-sook, was investigated for 11 hours by two prosecutors sent to the Busan District Prosecutor's Office, and Kwon Admitted to having collected $1 million to pay off debts, which prosecutors believe may have been given to Roh Moo-hyun.
On April 12, Roh's son, Mr. Roh, returned from the United States to be investigated. South Korean prosecutors believe Mr. Park provided $5 million because Mr. Roh commissioned him to "help his son and niece and son-in-law."
South Korean prosecutors said Mr. Roh's suspicions mainly included collecting money to pay off Ms. Kwon's debts; Collected $5 million in the name of his niece and son-in-law, Yan Zhehao; Directly collect $1 million in cash through Zheng Xiangwen; In the name of the development of Fengxia Village in Roh Moo-hyun's hometown, 7 billion won was collected from The Distance of Kang Jin, etc. According to legal experts, if the above-mentioned acts occurred during the term of President Roh Moo-hyun's term of office, roh Moo-hyun knew these facts, it would constitute a full-scale bribery crime.
To save more people
Under South Korean law, if a Mr. Sang-hyun is convicted of accepting bribes, Roh Moo-hyun will face jail time, and if he is brought into custody, more people will be drawn in. This is not difficult to see from his suicide note.
The following is Roh Moo-hyun's suicide note:
Benefiting many people, but making many people suffer because of me, there will be endless pain in the future. The rest of your life will only be a burden to others. Health is not very good, so nothing can be done, even books can not be read, words can not be written.
Don't be too sad, aren't life and death both a natural image?
Don't apologize, don't blame anyone, it's fate.
Cremated it. Then it is enough to put up a monument near the home. This is an idea that has been brewing for a long time.
I'm really sorry for my son, daughter and all the people who supported me. I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the countryside after retirement, but I didn't expect to be able to do so, which is a pity. Although there are many voices criticizing me in terms of money, I can say that I am innocent. In the distant future, history will give me a fair evaluation. ”
From Roh Moo-hyun's suicide note, it is not difficult to see that Roh Moo-hyun is to sacrifice himself to save more people, and he sees that the prosecution came at him, and it is really after Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide, and this case will no longer expand the scope, or it will not be resolved.
In order to preserve the more important character, Moon Jae-in
We can see the relationship between the two people, which is why 8 years later, Moon Jae-in attended Roh Moo-hyun's funeral in a high profile and paid attention to it, when Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide, there were rumors in South Korea that Moon Jae-in would avenge him.
Here is Moon's memoir from January 2018:
President Moon Jae-in shed tears at Roh Moo-hyun's memorial service
"I want to introduce to you that I have great respect, younger than me, very trustworthy friend , Moon Jae-in, who makes me very proud as my friend and gives me the confidence to become president." In 2002, Roh Moo-hyun announced this to voters across the country during his candidacy for the 16th term of South Korea's presidency. This also makes Moon Jae-in always added the title of "Roh Moo-hyun's friend" when he is mentioned by the outside world for more than a decade.
From a human rights lawyer to a great friendship with Roh Moo-hyun, to helping Roh elect him as the second-in-command of the regime, he became the most popular leader, and finally inherited Lu's legacy to become the president of 50 million people, just like the title of his autobiography "Destiny", Moon Jae-in's tortuous journey to the peak of power seems to have been doomed in the dark. The book not only records his personal growth history, but also reviews the interaction with Roh Moo-hyun and the tragic modern history of Korea.
In the afterword to his autobiography, Moon Jae-in bluntly stated, "Those of us who walked through that era with President Roh Moo-hyun and worked with President Roh To create a participatory government now have the priority of leaving testimony about what we have seen, experienced, and fought for with our own eyes, and recorded it in history as an admonition and reference for the next era." ”
As a human rights lawyer, I never hesitated
In his autobiography, Mr. Moon recalls his first meeting with Mr. Roh at his law firm in the early 1980s. Roh Moo-hyun confessed to him that his ideal was to be a "clean lawyer", but only after doing so did he know that this matter was not as simple as he thought. Moon is struck by Roh Moo-hyun's words, which makes him determined to follow Roh Moo-hyun on the path of a lawyer. The two like-minded opened a law firm named after them in the local area and became human rights lawyers.
At that time, people in Korean society were often fired, many people went on strike, and many people were imprisoned for criminal offenses. Almost all political, labor disputes, and human rights cases in Busan and the surrounding areas were defended by Moon Jae-in and Roh Moo-hyun. A person from a labor organization recalled to the South Korean media, "Many workers came to me for help, I asked them to go to lawyer Wen, he never refused me once, and when he gave help to the poor, he never hesitated or hesitated." ”
Human rights lawyers are a very hard profession, and it is not an easy profession to listen to people's demands, grievances, and solve difficulties for them. Sometimes I meet very harsh or unreasonable people, people who make excessive demands or are very persistent, but "the lawyer is never impatient or angry, he always spends hours listening to their demands and trying to help them solve the problem."
Of the countless cases Moon has represented, one of them has impressed him. In 1980, a family of four south Koreans, Shin, was sentenced on suspicion of being a spy. Although the traces of fabrication were obvious, the democratization movement was in full swing at that time, and the society would scold the other party as a "red element" at every turn, so it was very difficult to overturn the case. In 1994, Moon applied for a retrial and defended him free of charge.
It took a long defense process until August 2009, when the Xin family finally got acquitted in the case. In 2010, after being cleared, the person said: "At that time, I really did not have money, he defended me very hard, and my gratitude to him cannot be expressed in words." "Although the court corrected past wrong trials and apologized, the police and prosecutors who fabricated cases by extensive torture and illegal detention still did not have any reflection." ”
He focused on guaranteeing the human rights of citizens, the defendant stood to hear the trial, and was tied with ropes or handcuffed, and Moon Jae-in would loudly ask the presiding judge to "please open the handcuffs", "please untie the rope", "please prepare a chair", "let the defendant sit". In public trials, if plainclothes police officers are found to be present in advance to prevent the ordinary public from hearing, he will ask the presiding judge to let them leave the scene in plain clothes;
Three times into the Blue Roof, ten teeth were removed
In 1988, Roh Moo-hyun entered politics, but Moon Jae-in was born with no intention of plotting, decided not to ask about political affairs, and continued to stick to his profession as a human rights lawyer for 22 years. During this period, his success rate was very high. "Mr. Wen's speech is reasonable and well-founded, and he feels that his heart is full of warmth, perseverance, not giving up, and confidence." Many people he helped say this about him.
Roh Moo-hyun won the election in 2002, and in order to support his best friend, Moon entered the Blue House the following year, where he served as Chief Secretary of Civil Affairs, Chief Secretary of Civil Society, Special Assistant to Government Affairs, and Head of the Secretariat Office.
Many former colleagues at the Blue House said that Moon Jae-in lived a simple life, and he was often seen drinking seaweed soup with everyone in the diet cafeteria. After entering the Blue House for a year, his routine of sleeping late and getting up late was completely disrupted, and his body was overwhelmed and ten teeth were pulled out. He joked, "The higher the rank from my beginning, the more teeth I have extracted, and the number of teeth extracted is inseparable from the position." In early 2004, Moon resigned as chief civil administrator and went hiking in the Himalayas. He said that because he liked life in the mountains, he wanted to go back to being a lawyer. But life didn't go in the direction he expected.
On March 12, 2004, Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by Congress, and Moon Immediately decided to abandon his leisurely life and return to China to take charge of legal response and help his best friend out of the predicament. "We'll refute it outright." On the news screen at that time, you can see his confident and determined eyes. Three days after the impeachment trial, Moon returned to the Blue House and resumed his post. In 2006, he resigned as chief of civil affairs again, but was embroiled in a war of words over criticism of Busan's regionalism.
In 2007, the last year of Roh Moo-hyun's presidency, Moon was again appointed head of the Blue House Secretariat. Although he "really didn't want to go", because of Roh Moo-hyun's instructions, he could only "follow to the end". The biggest event of the year was the inter-Korean summit in October. Moon Jae-in was overwhelmed by the scene where Mr. and Mrs. Roh Moo-hyun walked across the military demarcation line, when Roh Moo-hyun said: "I now cross this forbidden line as president, and after I go, there will be more people going, and this forbidden line will gradually disappear in the future." This sentence seems to have been the driving force behind Moon's policy toward North Korea since he became president.
Less than a year after Mr. Roh left office, mr. Roh was investigated and disgraced by prosecutors after his wife and niece and son-in-law were exposed to having accepted $6 million in bribes while in power. In the early morning of May 23, 2009, Roh Moo-hyun jumped off a cliff with deep regret and pain, ending his short but extraordinary life.
As Roh Moo-hyun's closest friend, Moon once again took on the heavy responsibility. More than 500,000 people participated in the road festival. At the funeral he presided over, many South Koreans said they "will never forget Moon Jae-in at that moment." At the farewell ceremony, when his successor, Lee Myung-bak, stood up to present flowers to roh Moo-hyun's portrait, Democratic Party congressman Baek Won-woo suddenly shouted "You are a political murderer" and "Please apologize to President Lee.", and Moon Jae-in, who was the executive chairman of the funeral at the time, suppressed his inner grief and bowed to Lee Myung-bak to apologize. That scene made many people see his belly and heart.
The intensity of the reform is jaw-dropping
Shortly after Roh Moo-hyun's death, former President Kim Dae-jung also died in August 2009, creating divisions within the opposition. Moon Jae-in, who had hoped to keep his distance from the political circle all his life, was called by the times to re-enter the political arena.
"When the times need me, I don't run away from it once." At the end of 2011, Moon Jae-in decided to run for election and successfully won the democratic unity party, the largest opposition party, and officially embarked on the road to presidential election. However, due to the strongest opponent "election queen" Park Geun-hye, she finally lost the election with a small vote difference. In the same year he published his autobiography Destiny, which instantly became a Korean bestseller. Many people say that by reading his autobiography, people see hope again.
"The first time I met him was in the winter of 2013, when he had just lost the election and released his new book. On the day of the press conference, I sat across from him, and my first impression was that he was a steady and down-to-earth person. A former reporter from the Korea Daily in the Blue House said this to me when talking about Moon Jae-in. According to his description, Wen's first impression is that he is a very intelligent person, and the resume of a human rights lawyer gives a sense of trustworthiness. "Instead of means and skill, he communicates with you sincerely – the biggest difference from the two previous presidents (Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye).
Many Koreans say of Moon: humble, peaceful, perseverance, no love for power, tolerance. People who have dealt with him told me that when Wen was elected to Congress, he answered the phone himself, hung up his suit when he was at the Blue House, made coffee for the visitors, and even was reminded by the Blue House Secretariat to "pay attention to the image" because he was too easy-going in public.
In October 2016, when south Korea's "girlfriends did politics", Moon jae-in and hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square to demand that President Park Geun-hye step down. After several rounds of candlelight rallies, on March 10, 2017, South Korea's Constitutional Court announced Park Geun-hye's impeachment.
Two months later, Moon was elected South Korea's 19th president. In the more than half a year since he was in power, his approval rating has remained at a high level of 70%, and the intensity of the reform has stunned many people.
And all this seems to be to give an account to a close friend. "Now you have been liberated from fate, but I cannot move in the task you have left me." In the book, he recalls, "When I didn't meet you, I did everything properly, and I planned to live like that for the rest of my life." But your hot heart always awakens me, and so does your death, and let me go back to the path you led me on. ”
"President Roh Moo-hyun and I are like two streams, knowing each other in small tributaries, flowing together through a long and difficult road, experiencing many rapids and shoals on the way, but we are always together. Although we are now separated by yin and yang, spiritually and values, I and I will still flow quietly in a river. The closer you get to the sea, the more the rivers come together. At the end of his autobiography, Moon jae-in ends like this.