MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - Former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun died in an apparent suicide after jumping off a cliff while hiking near Bongha Village in the south of the country on early Saturday, Yonhap news agency reported.
Roh, 62, was recently in the center of a bribery scandal that could have spoiled his image of a 'clean politician.' The scandal has already seen a number of his relatives and confidants sent to prison.
The news agency said that police investigators later found a suicide note at the former president's house in Bongha Village in which he confessed of causing pain to everyone and asked to be cremated after his death.
"The pain that I caused to so many people are too great. The pain in the coming days is unfathomable... Don't be sorry. Don't blame anyone. It's fate," the agency quoted the suicide note as saying.
Roh, who was the president of South Korea between 2003 and 2008, was under an investigation on charges of taking bribes. He was accused of receiving $6 million from a businessman and then distributing the money among his relatives.
Yonhap reported that Roh's funeral will take place in Bongha Village, some 450 km (280 miles) to the south of Seoul, where he lived since his retirement in February of 2008.
