S Korea ex-leader set for probe (BBC)

S Korea ex-leader set for probe

By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul Mr Roh will face questioning in Seoul over corruption allegations South Korea's former president has apologised for a corruption scandal as he left his rural hometown to face questioning over alleged bribe-taking. In a statement, Roh Moo-hyun said: "I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens. I am sorry for disappointing you." Mr Roh has been summoned as a suspect in the case but prosecutors have yet to decide whether to charge him. Mr Roh came to power in 2003 partly on an anti-corruption ticket, and served until 2008. As he left his home on Thursday morning Mr Roh bowed to waiting reporters, and made his apology in front of the television cameras. Under a police escort, and followed every inch of the way by TV news helicopters, his convoy then set off for the five-hour journey to Seoul. He will face questioning at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office over corruption allegations. Excesses Mr Roh came to power promising his administration would be free from foul play, but the former president, who left office last year, now faces accusations that he took millions of dollars in bribes from a businessman friend, the wealthy head of a shoe manufacturing company. At one point a bag containing the equivalent of one million dollars in cash is said to have been delivered to the presidential office. In a statement posted on his website earlier this month, Mr Roh admitted that his wife received a substantial sum of money from the businessman, but suggested it was not a bribe, but a payment to help her settle a debt. For the South Korean public, the allegations are a reminder of an era many hoped had passed, in which former presidents found themselves embroiled in corruption scandals, and sometimes convicted and jailed for their excesses. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8026140.stm

Profile: Roh Moo-hyun

Roh Moo-hyun was a human rights lawyer before turning to politics High hopes surrounded Roh Moo-hyun's election to the South Korean presidency in December 2002. With his relative youth, lowly beginnings and promises to root out endemic political corruption, he seemed to be the new start the country needed. But his term in office has been a rollercoaster ride. His Uri party has been hit by scandal and in-fighting, and there has been fierce public opposition to several of his policies. He was even suspended early in 2004, after parliament voted to impeach him over a breach of election rules, but the Constitutional Court later overturned the move and he was reinstated. His popularity is extremely low, with one poll earlier this year giving him a 10% approval rating. The Uri Party is expected to suffer badly against the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) in presidential elections later this year, when Mr Roh's term in office comes to an end. Campaigning lawyer A human rights lawyer by trade, President Roh first made headlines soon after he entered politics in 1988, when he grilled top officials from the previous administration during a special parliamentary hearing on graft. Mr Roh's impeachment sparked widespread protests He had been one of the leaders of the "June Struggle" in 1987, against the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. He served a three-week jail sentence that year for abetting striking workers. Born to poor peasant parents in the south-eastern region of Kimhae, Mr Roh initially studied law as a means of escaping poverty. But in 1981 his work brought him in contact with a case of human rights abuse which he says changed his aspirations forever. Mr Roh was asked to defend one of two dozen students arrested for possessing banned literature, for which they were detained and tortured for almost two months. "When I saw their horrified eyes and their missing toenails, my comfortable life as a lawyer came to an end," Mr Roh is quoted as saying. Following nationwide protests which pushed Mr Chun out of office, Mr Roh entered politics by winning election to the National Assembly as a member of a pro-democracy party led by the activist Kim Young-sam, who later became president. Mr Roh was helped to leadership by a public disillusioned with scandal and South Korea's close relationship with the US. Ironically, it was scandal and political infighting that has also blighted Mr Roh's time in office. Mass defections Within a year of taking office, Mr Roh and his supporters formed the Uri Party ( which means Our Party). But in March 2004, parliament voted to impeach Mr Roh for breaching a minor election law, and he was forced into two months of political limbo. The impeachment came about because the conservative opposition - which at the time dominated South Korea's parliament - said the president had contravened the country's voting rules by openly supporting the Uri party in the run-up to assembly elections. The move humiliated Mr Roh, worried markets and drove thousands of people onto the streets in protest. In May the Constitutional Court overturned the verdict, saying Mr Roh had violated the law, but not gravely enough to warrant his removal from office. The Uri Party made a strong showing in assembly elections that April, and the president emerged in a much stronger position to push his reformist agenda in parliament. But a series of unpopular decisions, including sending Korean troops to Iraq, a failed attempt to move the capital from Seoul and the continuation of a policy of engagement with North Korea saw Mr Roh's popularity ratings plummet again. His government has also been accused of incompetency over its handling of the economy and in foreign affairs. Dozens of Uri Party politicians have defected in recent months to form their own party ahead of the December polls. President Roh, 61, is married to his childhood sweetheart Kwon Yang-sook, and they have a son and a daughter. He says he enjoys mountain climbing and bowling. He spent his two months of impeachment reading and hiking around the hills behind his official residence.