By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Police are still not sure what caused the death of a 47-year-old mid-level manager at Kookmin Bank, one of Korea's largest commercial banks, although they believe the preliminary autopsy indicates a possible suicide.
Bank officials say that there were no work-related reasons that drove him to kill himself.
"He was not directly connected to contracts and was never subjected to questioning by financial authorities," a bank official said.
Adding mystery to the death of the employee, identified by his family name, Roh, was that he didn't leave a suicide note.
Roh's body was found under the northern portion of the Seogang Bridge over the Han River spanning western Seoul at 9 a.m. on Monday.
Police initially believed that there was no foul play involved on the basis of a preliminary autopsy showing no external injuries.
It was, however, odd that his death came just a day before Kookmin unveiled its up-to-date Internet transaction system, which he had worked on through the Lunar New Year holiday in order to meet the launch date.
Kookmin, which was pushed into second place in terms of net profit by Shinhan and lost to Woori in assets last year, has been pouring 600 billion won into a multi-year project to upgrade its online banking service. Roh was responsible for software program development.
Another circumstantial indication is that his death came days after the state Financial Supervisory Service (FSC) wrapped up its "tougher-than-usual" audit of the bank and its holding company. The audit, which started in December last year, continued until last Wednesday, the bank said, adding that he was not subject to any questioning.
The audit followed a power struggle between KB Bank President Kang Chung-won and the FSS after Kang tried to take over its holding company as its chairman. Kang's attempt was thwarted but the FSS faced criticism for intervening into the affairs of the commercial bank.
This will leave the possibility of a family dispute but police said that his family has little idea about the cause of his death.
"He left no note to his family. And it was confirmed that he has no record of going to the hospital for mental problems," said a police officer familiar with the case. "We believe he killed himself because of undue stress associated with his job."
Some reports quoted his colleagues as speculating he killed himself due to stress from an FSS questioning but the FSS denies this.
This mysterious death came weeks after a Samsung executive killed himself apparently due to work-related stress.
Some industry watchers say that, if Roh's cause of death proves to be suicide, the two cases would suggest salaried workers undergo undue stress in Korea's competitive society.