Gyeongsangnam-do’s police chief said he believes late President Roh Moo-hyun jumped after sending his bodyguard on an errand.
Thanks to the bodyguard’s lies, though, it looks like a reinvestigation will be unavoidable, reports the Kookmin Ilbo.
And — since we at the Marmot’s Hole are nothing if not concerned about reader satisfaction — we give you the rumors.
- I always knew the Chosun was up to no good — some netizens, noting the file name of the logo used by the Chosun Ilbo as a mourning message, are claiming CONSPIRACY!
- And from the right, we have former Wolgan Chosun editor Cho Gap-je claiming that we cannot rule out the possibility that Roh’s death was simply an accident.
- Our very own Baduk claims Roh faked his own death. You may think him bat shit insane, but he was right about Hwang Woo-suk, so that makes him more credible that a lot of the netizenry.
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http://www.donga.com/fbin/outp.....mp;top20=1
When this bodyguard grabbed the double’s body and brought it to the hospital, it became de-facto identification.
There was no finger print match or dental match.
This “questionable” body guard was the only person who identified the dead body as Rho.
Believe me. Koreans are very easy to fool in this type of situation.
And, nobody, absolutely nobody in Korea, will even think of the scenario I am writing about.
I thought Roh was a terrible and pathetic president, but I actually liked the guy personally. I thought he was at least likable. Unfortunately, the spinning is starting, with some of my students eulogizing Roh as a great man and great president who’s image and life was ruined by the right-wing media and the evil murderous LMB.
Knowing the general nuttiness of Korean netizens, I worry that the conspiracy theories will take off, spinning out of control as they did with the deaths of the two girls (with Roh and the left taking full advantage of the resultant anti-American fervor). We have to be careful that the speculation remains that, mere speculation, to be upgraded only if warranted by evidence and facts determined through investigation. (Can we trust the investigators? Certainly at least as much as we can trust the nutizenry.) The best policy with conspiracy theories is to be totally sceptical until proven otherwise. That places the onus on the theorists to prove their theory and almost none of them ever can.
“하지만 정토원에서 음식공양을 담당하는 관계자는 최근 모 방송사와의 인터뷰에서 “노 전 대통령이 사찰 아래로 내려가는 것을 봤다”고 말했다”
Rho was even sighted by a person working at the temple.
He just walked away.
The bodyguard, instead of call 911, carried the body to the hospital. As soon as he got there, he said “this is the body of former-president Rho”. Then, everybody in the hospital assumed the body to be President Rho.
The newspaper guys came. They just wrote down what the body guard was saying. The police investigation was very limited due to the gravity of the situation; only handful of people checked the dead body.
They were not Rho’s close friends.
Once the body guard said that the body was President Rho’s, it stuck.
And, soon his body will be burned. Even before the funeral ceremony.
Perfect crime.
Roh was in fact crushed by an armored vehicle.
I like to think I’ve helped this along in my own small way. My ever-strong sense of schadenfroh demanded that I do something. You’re welcome.
It’s only trolling if you lie.
@4 repeatedly.
http://news.chosun.com/site/da.....01795.html
The “bodyguard” was busy kicking the passer-by from getting anywhere near where Rho was supposed to have been.
Is this a proper activity for a body guard? When he was the only person guarding the former president? What if assassins got to him? Shouldn’t the body guard be near the president?
How can this seasoned body guard act so stupid?
He was in on it.
Noh Moo-hyun’s bodyguard was interviewed three times, andtold a different story each time.
First Testimony: The bodyguard said he was with Noh Moo-hyun when he jumped. He said Noh had asked for a cigarette, but the bodyguard said he didn’t have any. Then the bodyguard said that Noh said he saw someone walking down below, and when the bodyguard looked away, Noh jumped off the cliff.
Second Testimony: The bodyguard said they went past the cliff to a Buddhist place where the memorial tablets of Noh’s parents are kept. The bodyguard said that on the way down Noh disappeared. The bodyguard said that he lied because he felt responsible.
Third Testimony (after a hiker said he met a man walking alone who looked to be a bodyguard): The bodyguard said that he escorted a hiker down the hill and when he returned Noh had disappeared. When the bodyguard was asked why he changed his story a third time, he didn’t reply. LINK
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There is no way I would believe anything the bodyguard says now. He needs to be given a polygraph test.
Here’s the thing, if the death of Roh was indeed not a suicide, there is very little chance that the truth would ever be uncovered. The biggest obstacle to any truth-seeking effort is the fact that the family of the deceased would very likely find it more beneficial to leave the cause of death as a suicide and not an accident or homicide. The family would obviously not want the death attributed to an accident, because then, Roh’s status as a martyr would be seriously diluted. Now, if the death was the result of a homicide, it is natural for the surviving family to want truth and justice. But there is no family in Korea that could go up against a group powerful enough to murder a former president. That’s the beauty of assassinations covered up as suicides/accidents. It sends the highly effective message to any potential truth-diggers that eliminating them would be a walk-in-the-park compared to what they did to the much more powerful or high profile person. No spouse, parent, uncle, or friend, be they powerful figures in politics or business, would ever have the capacity, find it in their interest, or have the willpower to fight for the truth in these circumstances. Same goes for journalists, especially Korean ones. I mean, if the death of the ranking family member of the most powerful chaebol in Korea is an open-shut case, I don’t see this one being investigated further.
Ironically, the LMB administration and its supporters are the only people that would have the incentive to reveal the death as a non-suicide. But the potential fallout from investigative efforts would not be worth risking, espcially since the chances of finding any concrete evidence would be minimal. And besides, conservatives are by definition not that courageous, and most of them live in fear of being done in by the “commies” anyway. So even if they thought it was a homicide, the most they would do is whisper it during family dinners.
Maybe a foreign journalist it will uncover the truth in our lifetimes, but I doubt it. So move on people, the suicide story is as close to the truth as we’ll get in our lifetimes.
I must say that there are many interesting theories floating around. I find it quite surprising that the corpse wasn’t properly identified by the authorities. Well, maybe it was, but we can’t be sure of that if we are to believe some of the “sources”.
If Mr No was killed or he faked his own death and simply walked away, how long do you think his bodyguard will have to live? Certainly he will be killed before he blurts out the truth. Let me tell you, the bodyguard’s days are counted!
If this is a conspiracy, this bodyguard has to “vanish” before he keep telling other versions/truth what supposedly happened on that mountain.
Here’s some news:
Not really “new” per se. Anyway, here goes. None of us will EVER know what happened.
There, put that one to rest.
Sounds like the bodyguard is trying to cover his ass and failing to do so because he can’t get his story straight. Why would anyone conspire to kill Roh? He was a non factor politically. Everything is turned into a conspiracy theory in Korea. Never a dull moment.
The bodyguard reported to military brass who got the go-ahead from the U.S. military.
I know who did it… it was that fake patsy Kim Hyun Hee!
Isn’t it a bit arrogant and imperialistic to attempt to impose your narrowminded Western concept of truth upon Koreans, who are, after all, an autonomous people whose cultural heritage you are genetically incapable of understanding?
Although 거짓말 is often translated as “lie,” that’s simply because there is no analogous term in English to adequately describe that Koreans do not see things in such categorical terms. What you Westerners call “truth,” is simply lack of contextual empathy.
Will you please get it through your thick Western head of yours that a strictly factual account of the events are simply inadequate to express the real drama of the situation? Imagine what would happen to America if Hollywood suddenly decided to report the facts rather than embellish or reinvent them? Just imagine how it woud devestate the entertainment sector, and think of the citizens who would be too uninspired to get up and go to work. A state of national emergency would ensue.
It doesn’t matter whether Roh jumped or was pushed or whether he was corrupt or the most polarizing, preening, hypocritical president in the history of the Republic. What matters is that he defined Koreans in terms of how we feel. With the U.S. military keeping a low profile and rumors about U.S. having been deflated, it’s time for another conspiracy to fill that existential void and define Koreans as Koreans.
So just forget the part about the smallminded, corrupt, xenophobic political hack who was probably henpecked to death by that greedy wife of his and remember that Roh’s must be made to represent something in death as he did in life. Roh’s death must be meaningful to Koreans. There must be something to point to like Dokdo and say, see! We need drama, damn it. And we will have our martyr.
I wrote a post, but then deleted it and published this one instead. Suffice to say, I think the story warrants our continued attention.
Handling the fragile body by himself is bad enough, but I’m curious as to why the better alternative would have been to call 119. Don’t bodyguards at that level have access to special response teams? *Shouldn’t* they have access to it? I guess by saying “119″ they could be referring to that, but well, I’m not even sure what to think at this point.
I do not understand what Robert’s problem is, but he seems to be treating the suspicions surrounding Noh Moo-hyun’s death as more of a joke than seriously reporting on it. Therefore, I will try to explain what is being said in the Korean news since I consider this to be one of the most important stories of the year.
First, I am not sure if it is the bodyguard making up these stories or if it is the police and bodyguard together, but the story has changed again today.
Today, the police said that after Noh Moo-hyun and one of his bodyguard’s, whose name is Lee, went up onto the mountain together, Noh instructed the bodyguard to go ahead of him to the Buddhist temple about 270 meters beyond the cliff (Owl Rock) to see in the head of the temple was there that day. The temple is where the memorial tablets of Noh’s parents are kept. That was supposedly at about 6:14. When the bodyguard returned about three minutes later, Noh had disappeared.
The bodyguard named Lee then called another bodyguard named Shin at 6:17 and said, “I went away on a short errand for the president, and now he is gone. Come out and see if he is coming down.” Lee than asked a 57-year-old woman digging for herbs if she had seen any hikers. When she answered, “No,” Lee called Shin again at 6:23 and asked, “Did you find him? Can you see him?” Shin answered, “I see him.” (This answer does not make sense.)
Lee then ran to a place called “Lion Rock,” which is beyond the temple, to search for Noh. Then at 6:30, Lee called Shin again and said, “Look around the reservoir or pond area.” Lee then went back to check the temple. Shin then called Lee at 6:35 and say, “Check the sanctum area of the temple. He might be there.” Lee answered, “No, he is not there,” and then ran back to the cliff area.
Lee said that he got a feeling that Noh might be at the bottom on the cliff and ran down to check. He found Noh at 6:45 and called on his radio to the guard quarters and said, “Bring a car. There has been an accident.”
Lee then supposedly carried Noh to a flat area to attempt to resuscite him. They then loaded Noh into a car and took him to a hospital.
————————
Okay, that was the story today, but there may be a new story tomorrow. Anyway, here is a timeline on how the stories have changed.
1) Noh died on the morning of May 23th. The bodyguard’s story that day was that he and Noh are on the cliff together when Noh asks him for a cigarette. The bodyguard says he no cigarettes and offers to go get some. Noh tells him not to worry about it, and says someone is moving down below. When the bodyguard turns to look, Noh jumps off the cliff.
One of the problems with that story is that if Noh were looking for an opportunity to commit suicide, why didn’t he let the bodyguard go back and get his cigarettes when he offered to?
On the 24th, the police briefed the press on the results of their investigation. Someone in the press asked if Noh and the bodyguard went to the temple from Owl Rock. The police spokesman said that he heard they did not go to the temple. However, the strange thing is that the head of the temple later said that he had told police that the bodyguard had come to the temple.
On the 25th, after it was reported in the press that Noh had sent the bodyguard on an errand to the temple, the police changed their story and said that they knew about it, but that they did not think it was important enough to make public. The bodyguard left the former president unprotected, and the police did not think that was important?
Today, there was a new revelation. The head of the temple, 75-year-old Shin Jin-gyu, told a reporter of the Maeil Economic Newspaper that Noh’s bodyguard Lee called him on the 24th and confessed, “I left the side of the president.”
Shin, (the head of the temple) said that Lee told him that Noh had asked him to go check to see if he were there. Lee supposedly asked, “Should I bring him here?” However, Noh said, “No, just go check.”
Shin immediately told the head of the Gyeongnam District Police Station what Lee had confessed, but the police asked him to keep it a secret for the time being. Shin said that he told the police that they should tell the media, but he said that the police asked him to keep it a secret until the final report of the investigation was announced.
This contradicts what the police had said, which was that they did not know that Noh and the bodyguard were apart until the bodyguard later changed his testimony. Today, a spokesman for the Gyeongnam District Police Station confirmed that the head of the station had heard the story directly, but did not explain why they had kept such an important piece of information a secret.
Could it be that it is the police who had been changing the story rather than the bodyguard? The bodyguard confessed on the 24th, and the police knew of it on the 24th, so who later invented the story about the bodyguard leaving Noh to escort an approching hiker back down the hill?
According to the story today, the bodyguard had informed the other bodyguards that he had left Noh alone to run an errand and that Noh had disappeared. The bodyguard visited the head of the temple without Noh, so the investigating police could have easily found that out and caught the bodyguard in a lie. Therefore, how could the bodyguard have possible thought that he could get away with lying about being with Noh during the whole time?
When former President Noh left his house, two bodyguards are supposed to go with him because if there were an attempted attack on the former president, one of the bodyguards could hold off the attackers while the other bodyguard got Noh to safety.
Had it become common practice for only one bodyguard to escort Noh on his hikes? Did the higher-ups know about it and approve of it? Is it possible that the police were trying to help cover up for the bodyguard’s mistake since his mistake may have implicated someone higher up?
Those are just some questions I have.
Mizar5: “Isn’t it a bit arrogant and imperialistic to attempt to impose your narrowminded Western concept of truth upon Koreans, who are, after all, an autonomous people whose cultural heritage you are genetically incapable of understanding?”
I’m sorry, I’m new to this forum, but wtf are you talking about? “genetically incapable of understanding”? Are you serious? I shudder to think what my Korean friends would say if I told them that they were “genetically incapable” of understanding my “cultural heritage”. What kind of weird racist bullshit is that?
And “Will you please get it through your thick Western head of yours that a strictly factual account of the events are simply inadequate to express the real drama of the situation?” – here again, words fail me. I’m not sure you know what are you talking about. We can’t ask questions or investigate the real story of what happened that day because we are genetically incapable and, as I’m reading you, westerners and easterners don’t have an equivalent understanding of concepts like truth and lie? You must be kidding.
Let’s say that your strange and profoundly bigoted assumptions are true (because I could spend hours ripping this crap apart) – what do you say to all of the Koreans who want an investigation? What do you tell your genetically superior countrymen and women who believe that there is still more to this story?
안녕하세요 ?
Mizar5: I apologize – I took your post seriously without realizing that you are mentally challenged. You have my pity…
Thank you for being considerate.
gbevers: “I do not understand what Robert’s problem is, but he seems to be treating the suspicions surrounding Noh Moo-hyun’s death as more of a joke than seriously reporting on it.”
Like I said, I’ve been following this site for awhile, but I’m new to the forums. I like this expat site more than many because I don’t have to read quite so many long, bitchy stories on how indecently Western English teachers feel they are treated – like the “draconian” 7 day internment camps for swine flu. (If the conditions are so awful, there are many other places you could try teaching english, of course, like, I don’t know – New York? See how the Brooklyn school system suits you…)
But on the Roh story, Robert (I guess this is the name of the guy running this blog), seems to have adopted this kind of snarky, jaded, defeatist attitude so many here feel comfortable adopting while at the same time pushing the story. I’m grateful at least one of the expat sites is willing to provide a forum to discuss what seems to me to be, at the very least, a story still very much on the minds of many Koreans, both in Korea and abroad. What I don’t get is the lame “conspiracy talk is a waste of time and even if there was a conspiracy, we’ll never find out the truth so let’s just drop it” position so many in here are spouting.
Then again, apparently I’m not “genetically” qualified to understand what is really going on…
The website address is http://www.rjkoehler.com and Robert’s full name appears on every post, so I find these two statements as contradictory as Roh’s bodyguard’s claim to have been escorting a hiker down the hill and visiting a temple while Roh jumped. What usernames have you posted under previously?
John Galt, Mizar is writing satire, and it’s pretty good, too. He’s not serious, and he is kidding, so read it again and have a laugh this second time around.
Of course, satire also has its serious aspects…
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
As I mentioned in one of my posts, I live in the US, not Korea, however I may have to spend some time in Korea in the near future, so a friend suggested I check out this blog. I have been doing so for several months, but didn’t really pay attention to the forums, nor the name of the blog’s author; for all I knew, he could have been named Maramot Hole.
I have not posted under any usernames previously; you seem very suspicious – why is that I wonder? You were the one yesterday who posted the ominous “Making unfounded criminal accusations is not only irresponsible but potentially unlawful.” in response to one of my comments, as if to suggest that I had done so. I still haven’t made any accusations, but you still seem fixated on me for some reason. gbevers, who makes some very interesting points, didn’t seem to spark your interest. Odd.
By the way, apparently Roh made the comment about organ donation on a tv interview show – I’ll see if I can find a clip.
Have a nice day.
Relax, John. Sock puppets are legal.
jefferyhodges: Glad to hear it, actually. I’ve read some strange responses in this forum, but his seemed over the top. I actually forwarded it around to some of my friends. There response ranged from “and you have to go there why?” to (from a korean american) “some koreans are just like that – they think outsiders are incapable of understanding them. thats one of the reasons i left.”
john_galt718, if you “have been following this site for a while” then surely you must know that Mizar5 is a sock puppet… and that some things here are said tongue in cheek… or with heavy sarcasm. Things are not always what they seem.
GBevers, I think you have proven how screwed up things can get, especially in a society that constantly bends rules for persons in authority or with connections. Getting a straight answer is going to get very difficult fast. What is worse is that you have a large part of the electorate who have a proven record of belief in conspiracy theories. How long before this gets blamed on the US?
The inconsistencies in the bodyguard’s accounts are most likely due to his panicked efforts to cover his irresponsible abandonment of his principle charge. He should have been there to protect Roh (from himself — or whoever pushed him — if that actually happened). That a guard would take orders to briefly leave the side of his client while in a secluded area is not unthinkable, no matter how wrong in terms of protocol. But that a Korean would change his story to protect other colleagues or the President even at personal expense is almost a given. (It is a collectivist culture with high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance, to use Hofstede’s framework). And without witnesses or other evidence to suggest assassination, we are left with the bodyguards’ accounts. The possibility that the guard himself pushed Roh remains, but the only motive that makes sense would be a payoff of some kind from the real people out to get Roh. But who would that be? This is not like the Park assassination. Roh was out of power and the bodyguard was not a Kim Chae-gyu rising up to take action to save the nation. The person with the most motive was Roh. Apply Occam’s Razor.
But if this bodyguard dies in a freak accident later this year, or if he starts spending more than his salary would allow, then that would bear more scrutiny.
Sonagi: “I am not going to ask questions about unverified claims, like Roh’s desire to donate his organs…”
Nothing is verified until someone takes a couple of minutes to actually do the verification. I’m sure I can find you more on this if you so desire…
http://www.sportsseoul.com/new.....06368.html
Uri Onara: I’ll say it again – I have followed the site and the links – even the ones the to the bikini models – but not the forums; I have no idea who any of you are and I didn’t realize that sockpuppet was universally understood to mean – don’t take anything I’m saying seriously.
As for Occam’s Razor, if we applied Occam’s Razor to Watergate, Nixon and crew would never have been caught, to raise the most obvious example that comes to mind. I don’t need to wait for the bodyguard to die in a freak accident to ask a few questions, demand a new investigation, demand that Roh’s cremation be halted until there has been an opportunity for thorough autopsy, etc. Your positions seems to be, don’t get paranoid until more weird things happen. I don’t think so.
Further, I’d like to hear more from the wife. I thought it was interesting she requested a peoples funeral despite her husband’s request in his “suicide” note.
Occam’s Razor is not a foolproof truth detector, it is a logical deduction based on what is more probable. Nobody here is arguing against proper investigation. Good luck in getting all the answers you desire.
john_galt718, it still begs the question of who had the most motive to see Roh dead. I maintain it was Roh himself, with or without bodyguard help. But if you see something else here, what is your theory? Who do you think would benefit from Roh’s assassination? Without a motive, the improbable becomes much more unlikely. In the case of Watergate, there was plenty of motive all around.
Uri Onara:
Yes, I am familiar with Occam’s Razor – I imagine we all are. And I’m glad you’re on board with having a proper (and hopefully speedy) investigation.
Here is a conclusion that rings hollow for me – “The person with the most motive was Roh.” I don’t see it – to me, it seems like the people with the most motive in getting Roh out of the way were those who might have been revealed to have been complicit in this bribery scandal.
@John:
Thanks for the link. I found an even better one straight from the late ex-president’s website here. I can’t believe that Roh might have forgotten his pledge made during his campaign. Seven years isn’t that long ago, and it’s not like he had important things on his mind recently.
@Sonagi:
Yes, I anticipated this response. First it’s unverified; once verified, it isn’t current enough. If I told you he had again expressed his desire to be an organ donor the previous week, you’d tell me “See, that proves that suicide was on his mind…”.
Who is John Galt?
Seriously, john, are your real initials JJ and did you go to college in Florida? I think I might know you.
I really wish that people on this blog knew what a ’sock puppet’ was. There is a right way and a wrong way to use internet slang.
@ colontos: No, my initials are not JJ and I’ve only been to Florida once, briefly.
One funny unintended (?) consequence of these Roh forums is, if you type “roh and suicide and conspiracy” into Google, Marmot’s Hole is fourth from the top…that practically makes this conspiracy central.
While we’re on the subject of new posters, several regulars seem to have disappeared recently. A conspiracy?
(And I for one would also like to say welcome back to Gerry).
I doubt it’s a conspiracy – I’m sure that they have been rounded up for interrogation as part of the new investigation – as will we all.
If you google ” “roh moo-hyun” and conspiracy and suicide”, Marmot’s Hole is second from the top, and number one is just an altavista redirect, so this now really is the english speaking focal point for news of the cabal.
Keep my mama out of it. Bribery is no scandal here, it’s a way of life. Who isn’t complicit? Telling the truth, now that’s a scandal. Media personalities have gotten fired for even hinting at the truth.
As for conspiracies, you don’t have to be on acid to see patterns, but it sure helps.
At the very least, I suspect there was an attempted coverup that involved the other bodyguards and maybe even some of the investigating police. I suspect that the bodyguard may have reported the actual sequence of events on the day Noh died because, if the story reported yesterday by police is true, then the other bodyguards and the head of the temple knew that he had left Noh alone. He would have had no choice but to tell the truth or else get the others to help him cover it up.
From what I understand, the bodyguard who accompanied Noh on his hike was the head bodyguard, which suggests he may have had influence and friends in high places. Even if Noh did commit suicide, there could still have been an attempt to cover up the fact that the bodyguard had left Noh alone. The problem, though, was that the head of the temple had seen the bodyguard come without Noh and would have had to be in on the coverup for it to work.
In an interview with a newspaper yesterday, the head of the temple said he received a phone call on the 24th from the bodyguard who confessed he had left the president alone. The temple head said he reported the phone call to the chief of the Gyeongnam District Police Station on the very same day, but that the police chief asked him to keep it a secret for the time being.
Today it has been being reported that a new revelation has come to light (LINK), which is that the phone call made by the bodyguard to the head of the temple on the 24th was done in an attempt to get the temple head to agree to a coverup.
Supposedly, the bodyguard called the head of the temple from a public phone and told him that he had told the investigating police that he had gone to the temple, but that he had not met anyone there. The bodyguard asked the temple head to keep their meeting a secret. We know now that the temple head did not keep the phone call a secret, but reported it to the police.
What I find strange about the above episode is that it suggests that the police did not interview the head of temple on the 23rd because if they had, they would have learned from the temple head that the bodyguard had come to the temple alone. Also, did they not interview the other bodyguards who also knew that the bodyguard with Noh had left him alone? Were the police investigators really that inept or were they part of a coverup? Why did police tell reporters on the 24th that Noh and the bodyguard had not gone to the temple, when they already knew that the bodyguard had gone there? And why did they later said that they did not know the bodyguard had left Noh alone until the bodyguard confessed that fact to them.
The phone call by the bodyguard on the 24th could have have been an attempt by all concerned to found out if the temple head would agree to a coverup. By reporting the phone call to the police, they learned that the temple head would most likely not agree to a coverup, so they had to come up with a new story.
The new story on the 26th was that the bodyguard left Noh at the cliff to chase away a hiker coming up the trail, and that when the bodyguard returned, Noh had disappeared. The bodyguard could then say that he was doing his duty when Noh disappeared and that he went to the temple alone in search of Noh. That story might have worked as long as the other bodyguards continued to play along.
I am sorry, but I have to stop here and go teach a class. I may finish it later.
I might have killed myself, too.
Bongha Journal
Out of Office and Into a Fishbowl in South Korea
Article Tools Sponsored By
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: April 10, 2008
BONGHA, South Korea — Each day, a stream of cars and buses pulls into this hamlet of 121 people, disgorging thousands of tourists on a typical weekday and up to 20,000 on Sundays. They all come to see one man, the village’s newest resident.
A new resident may put Bongha, near Kimhae, on the map.
When that man takes a walk to a hill behind his house or to a nearby marsh, they follow him in droves, fathers carrying small children on their shoulders, homemakers snapping pictures with cellphones and those who get close to him thrusting their babies out to be blessed by him. When he is holed up in his house, they pile up at the gate and shout in unison, “Mr. President, please come out!”
Since Roh Moo-hyun left office on Feb. 25 and returned to this village in the country’s southeast where he was born, he has become something South Koreans have never seen before: a former president as tourist attraction.
“Today, people were yelling outside from 9 a.m.,” Mr. Roh, 61, told a group of tourists gathered outside his home on a recent day. “Whether in office or retired, a president needs some privacy. All of you coming all the way to see me puts a big burden on me.
“I feel grateful. But I also feel sorry that I can’t shake hands with each one of you or invite you all in for tea.”
Cameras flashed. People cheered, jostling to get closer.
“Hey, President!” blurted an old man. “Where is the first lady? Can we see her too?”
Mr. Roh’s wife, Kwon Yang-sook, sometimes joins him to greet the crowds. Otherwise, he fends off the common request with a joke. “She is washing dishes,” he says, or “She is putting on makeup and doesn’t want you to wait around because, you know, it takes a while.”
This ritual repeats itself up to eight times a day, said Kim Min-jeong, a tour guide in Bongha. “He can’t get away from it,” Ms. Kim said. “When one group leaves, another group quickly gathers at his gate. If he doesn’t come out, it gets noisy outside and he can’t work inside. It’s not easy being a former president.”
Mr. Roh was unpopular in office; toward the end of his term, his approval rating fell below 30 percent, according to surveys. But in the weeks since Lee Myung-bak succeeded him, he has been establishing himself as a new kind of retired president.
In the past, if South Koreans marched on a former leader’s home and shouted outside his gate, they were demonstrators, not tourists. Of Mr. Roh’s predecessors, one was ousted in a popular uprising, one was assassinated and two were imprisoned for sedition and corruption. His two immediate predecessors saw their names tarnished in the public eye by way of their children; a son of Kim Young-sam went to prison for bribery, and all three of Kim Dae-jung’s sons were convicted of corruption.
And while past presidents have, like Mr. Roh, hailed from rural areas, they chose to make their homes in Seoul upon leaving office. The other four surviving former presidents now live under heavy police guard in the capital, where some meddle in domestic politics but none mingle with ordinary people.
Mr. Roh, in contrast, rides his bicycle through Bongha, a village near the city of Kimhae. He plants trees and cleans ditches with farmers. He keeps a blog. And he has visitors, thousands of them, every day.
His move into a newly built, low-slung house has brought a swirl of change to Bongha, where residents, when asked what besides Mr. Roh their town is famous for, give you a sheepish smile and cite its abundant persimmon trees.
Banners welcoming Mr. Roh flutter everywhere. A road has been widened, and new parking lots built; nevertheless, on weekends the snarled traffic forces tourists to abandon their cars outside the village and walk, creating the incongruous scene of throngs making a pilgrimage on foot to a no-name hamlet in a sea of rice paddies.
Villagers have turned their town hall into a thriving restaurant for tourists. Outsiders have moved in and are selling steamed ears of corn, roasted chestnuts and herbs along the narrow alley leading to Mr. Roh’s 43,000-square-foot residential compound.
“I didn’t particularly like him when he was president,” said Lee Soo-in, 22, a college student. “But it really feels good to be able to see a former president up close and see where he lives. He feels like an uncle next door. We don’t have such intimacy with other former presidents. They all maintain an authoritative, boring persona.”
Shin Jeong-sook, 30, a kindergarten teacher, brought 67 children with her so they “can have inspiration from the president’s rags-to-fame career,” she said. (Born into a family too poor to send him to college, Mr. Roh educated himself and passed the bar exam without having attended law school.)
At the entrance to Mr. Roh’s boyhood home, now occupied by another family, a plaque tells a story guaranteed to pique a Korean mother’s interest: that of Mr. Roh’s mother’s “dream of the womb,” in which a pregnant woman is said to see her child’s future. When she was pregnant with Mr. Roh, the plaque says, an old man with snow-white hair showed up in a dream and gave her a large horse.
“When she rode it,” the plaque says, “its hooves sounded like thunder.”
Mr. Roh says he has no intention of getting back into politics. Skeptics, however, question how long the former firebrand will remain aloof. Though he lives in the countryside now, he remains connected by way of the Internet, as well as a network of die-hard supporters who call themselves Nosamo, short for “people who love Roh Moo-hyun.”
Mr. Roh said he was busy beefing up his Web site, another first for a former president, which he wants to turn into a Wikipedia-like database on social and environmental issues.
“I am extremely busy,” he said. “I’ve got lots of things to do. When I was president, I slept at least six hours a day, no matter what, because it was my duty as head of state to keep in good health. But last night I slept less than five hours, staying up until 1 a.m. working. I feel free.”
Roh’s people ask for an end to the conspiracy mongering:
http://news.kukinews.com/artic.....038;cp=nv1
I believe Google’s algorithm factors in previous search and viewing habits, so The Marmot’s Hole wouldn’t ncessarily appear on the first page of everyone’s search results.
@ Sonagi: I checked from my wife’s computer as well. She has never been to this site – same results for her as well.
necessarily
Veracity and relevance are two distinct qualities, so yes, you should have anticipated that a 2002 campaign pledge would not hold much significance.
I tire of this topic.
@Robert:
Why do we keep calling it “conspiracy mongering” when the story does, in fact, keep changing? If the bodyguard had stuck to his original story, I’d say fine, drop it. But it has changed repeatedly. It has become clear that there was some sort of cover-up; shouldn’t we want to know how far this cover-up extends? Gbevers has detailed many inconsistencies over the last couple of days, some of which have only just come to light.
I think the time has come to pay the man his final respects and let the country mourn – but how can they mourn with any peace of mind knowing that there are still all of these lingering questions? So far, the only response I’ve received from the naysayers is that the rumors haven’t been verified and we’ll never know the truth because everyone in SK politics is corrupt so we should just stop asking questions. Cynical bs.
If people want the idle and pointless speculation to end, conduct a thorough investigation (including an examination of the body) out in the open.
Then why are you reading this thread? I generally scroll past posts of little interest and guess that other readers do, too.
@cmm:Your enthusiasm for this topic was never in doubt…and yet you continue to chime in.
As opposed to cynical, ideologically charged, emotionalist, factionalised, sensationalist distortions you mean? Yeah, that could happen.
The most amazing part of the story is that some people would be willing to let it rest. Of course, given the particular circumstances, the the Amazing Mizar had predicted that outcome from the start:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2009/.....hyun-dead/
comment 48
This is the first part of a series I will write on the investigation into Noh Moo-hyun’s death.
Part One
May 23 (the day of Noh Moo-hyun’s death)
The Chief of the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency, Lee Un-u, appeared at a televised press conference and said the following:
So what did the 94-men investigation team do? They interviewed Lee Byeong-chun, the head of Noh Moo-hyun’s security detail and the man who was supposedly with Noh when he jumped off the cliff. That interview was conducted at 5:30 p.m., eight hours after Noh Moo-hyun was pronounced dead. Yes, they waited eight hours to interview him. That gave the bodyguard and his subordinates plenty of time to invent the first lie of the investigation, which was reported on the news that evening.
The bodyguard said that he and Noh sat up on the cliff for about twenty minutes talking when Noh suddenly jumped off the cliff. Supposedly Noh had asked him for a cigarette, but the bodyguard did not have one and he offered to go get some for him. Noh, however, told him not to bother. Then Noh supposedly said that someone was moving down below. The bodyguard said that when he turned to look, Noh jumped off the cliff, which supposedly was about 6:40.
As part of their “precise” investigation, the 94-men investigation team probably also printed out Noh’s suicide note and noted the time it was written, but they did not collect evidence at the scene or look for other witnesses because “a bodyguard is a special occupation” and they “believed his testimony.”
We have a joke in Texas that goes like this: “How many Okies does it take to screw in a light bulb?” The answer: 94
No autopsy was performed on the body, supposedly at the request of the family.
Part Two will come later.
Assuming the suicide note on the computer was in a word processor like Microsoft Word (or even “areh hangul” app), not Notepad, it would auto-save a recovery file every 10 minutes by default if anything changed, so they could figure out when it was written. And, as much as I prefer to type everything on a computer, I’d definitely hand-write something significant like a suicide note…
@ gbevers: Look forward to seeing the next part of the series. My wife had read that there was cctv footage of the hike area that still hadn’t been released for reasons which remained unclear – I’ll see if I can find a link.
Though I’d still like to see a real investigation (one we will probably never get), what makes me think that this really was just a screw up by the bodyguard is this call he made to the temple to try and cover his ass. If you had planned out an assassination, you wouldn’t let your target go wandering around and then make a phone call trying to persuade witnesses not to say anything after the fact. Unless you were really crafty (more credit than I give the hypothetical masterminds) and always intended to make it look like a desperate cover-up by a lone, bumbling bodyguard.
@ taekwonV: The suicide note left on the computer is one of those things that I don’t think even an investigation is going to reveal anything on. I still think it stinks, but aside from dusting the keyboard for prints (if someone else did write the note, they wouldn’t be that stupid, right?) what are they going to do.
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