Wed, May 27, 2009
SEOUL, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Former President Roh Moo-hyun jumped to his death in the absence of the security guard who solely accompanied him on his last hike, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday, citing local police.
According to a regional police chief in charge of the investigation, the police has been confirmed that Roh jumped to his death from a mountainside cliff near his rural home on Saturday morning in the absence of the security guard.
"It is believed that former President Roh fell from the rock after sending his security guard on an errand to a nearby temple," said Lee Woon-wu, commissioner of the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency.
The death case will have to be reinvestigated, as the security guard was found to have lied about the details surrounding his death, Lee said.
The body guard had initially claimed that he stood near Roh, eyewitnessing his death, when Roh jumped off the 30-meter-high "Owl Rock," just behind Roh's residence in Bongha Village, about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Roh was found dead on Saturday after falling down a mountain amid an investigation into a bribery scandal he and his family were involved in.
More than 700,000 mourners have made the pilgrimage to the ex-president's hometown Bongha as of Wednesday morning.
