Dear editor,

The shocking suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun and the subsequent public anger toward current President Lee Myung-bak and the prosecutor's office should once and for all clarify how much power the prosecutor's office can wield when going after high-profile suspects or any other suspect of criminal behavior.

Maybe Lee did apply a little pressure toward the prosecutors to come down as hard as they could on Roh, especially when you consider it as Lee's payback toward the Democratic Party (formerly Uri Party) which rallied for a stern investigation of Lee's financial transactions soon after Lee was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Grand National Party in 2007.

But the who and what with respect to Roh's suicide is not what I plan to bring up here, but the why.

As evidenced by the parting words left on Roh's computer, the suicide was premeditated and was carefully planned. Roh, despite his unpopularity as president, was not a stupid man, nor a clumsy one.

In fact, he was a highly intelligent person whose only offense while in office was his propensity to speak his mind without first contemplating whether those words would irritate or offend any other politician whose help he would need to depend on later.

Roh figured that the prosecutor's investigation would sooner or later lead to his arrest, which would then lead to other matters, such as the arrest of other members of his family, and the worst punishment of all in Korea, the payment of hefty fines and/or the confiscation of assets (which Roh ironically insisted against those who collaborated with the Japanese during the Japanese colonial period).

Roh correctly guessed that if he should die, somehow, the prosecution would have no other choice but to cease, because without Roh the only other possible criminal charge that could be brought against anyone would only be a case of maybe tax-evasion, since none of Roh's family members are public officials.

So, in order to save his family from further public humiliation and other more serious potential sufferings, Roh decided to go ahead with the most difficult decision of his life.

Lee Cheun-heui
Financial consultant
Yongsan-gu, Seoul
bogartyankee@yahoo.com