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<DIV><FONT size=4>Dear friends and colleagues,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>A busy couple of days in the news for Korea, none
good.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Trust Kim Jong-il to upstage poor Roh Moo-hyun.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The Guardian asked me to memorialize Roh.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I wrote against the clock, but tried to weigh my
words.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>In his death as in life, I found heart and head in
conflict.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Though the Grauniad's edit wasn't bad as edits go</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/24/roh-moo-hyun-obituary"><FONT
size=3>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/24/roh-moo-hyun-obituary</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I append the full version (too long) as I wrote
it,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>which has the balance I intended - for better or
worse.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Best wishes</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Aidan</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Aidan
Foster-Carter<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="COLOR: black"><FONT
size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology
& Modern Korea, Leeds University <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Flat 1, 40
Magdalen Road, Exeter, EX2 4TE, UK<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman">T: (+44, no
0) <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>07970 741307
(mobile); <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">01392 257753<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(home)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">E:
</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black"><A
title=mailto:afostercarter@aol.com
href="mailto:afostercarter@aol.com">afostercarter@aol.com</A><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>W: <A
title=http://www.aidanfc.net/ href="http://www.aidanfc.net/"><FONT
color=#800080>www.aidanfc.net</FONT></A> <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Skype</I>: Aidan.Foster.Carter
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>On May 31 my fiancée Kate is running a marathon
for Camfed, which supports education for girls in Africa. Please sponsor this
good cause: </FONT><A href="http://www.justgiving.com/katehext1"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://www.justgiving.com/katehext1</FONT></A><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="COLOR: black"><FONT
size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT></SPAN></I> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="COLOR: black"><FONT
size=3><FONT
face="Times New Roman">_____________________</FONT></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="COLOR: black"><FONT
size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT></SPAN></I> </P><SPAN
lang=EN-GB style="COLOR: black"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><o:p>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><EM>Obituary commissioned by
<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">The Guardian</B>. Completed 24 May 2009.
Edited version published on <o:p></o:p></EM></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><EM>25 May 2009 at<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></EM><A
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/24/roh-moo-hyun-obituary"><FONT
color=#800080><EM>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/24/roh-moo-hyun-obituary</EM></FONT></A><EM>
<o:p></o:p></EM></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Roh
Moo-hyun<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Combative South Korean
president who challenged the old elite<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Aidan
Foster-Carter<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>Roh Moo-hyun, who ended his life
on Saturday aged 62, was a South Korean president who broke the mould – though
in the end the mould broke him. Born in poverty, his tenure in the Blue House
(2003-08) antagonized the Seoul elite and Washington while disappointing his
fans. Dismay grew as a corruption scandal enveloped him, finally driving him to
jump from a clifftop near his home early in the morning after leaving a suicide
note on his computer. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT size=4><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Roh never lost his roots in Korea’s rural
southeast. The youngest child of a poor farmer, his nickname was ‘stone bean’:
small but tough. His first-grade teacher said he </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black">had many talents – above all in presenting his opinions.
</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Unable to afford
college, he worked on building sites while studying at night for South Korea's
formidable bar examination. Passing this in 1975 – a remarkable feat for a
non-graduate – he was briefly a judge before practising as a lawyer.
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>In
1971 he had married his childhood sweetheart Kwon Yang-sook, from the same area
and background; her father was once jailed as pro-communist. They have a son and
a daughter.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>At first more upwardly mobile than
political – with a comfortable tax practice, he joined the local yacht club – in
1980 Roh defended students tortured on trumped-up charges by Seoul’s then
military dictators. By his own account, the sight of torn-out toenails
radicalized him. Now specializing in human rights cases, he was briefly jailed
in 1987: the year democracy was restored. Elected to the national assembly for
the port city of Pusan, he gained national fame for sharply grilling generals
and tycoons, in sessions broadcast live on television. Such irreverence struck a
fresh note in a country still in fear of the military and in awe of
elites.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>A spell in the wilderness
followed. When his mentor Kim Young-sam allied with generals to win the
presidency in 1993, a disgusted Roh threw in his lot with YS’s rival, the
long-time dissident Kim Dae-jung. Regional antagonism between the southeast and
DJ’s southwest made the latter a losing ticket in Pusan, but Roh doggedly ran
and lost three times. His down to earth image as a principled if quixotic loser
inspired his supporters to form Nosamo (We Love Roh), South Korea’s first ever
political fan club, which blossomed as the Internet
grew.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>Kim Dae-jung won the presidency in
1997, and Roh served briefly as fisheries minister. Yet he was still a political
outsider when the ruling party decided to choose its next candidate – South
Korean presidents serve a single five-year term – via the country’s first ever
primaries. To elite consternation, a bandwagon began to roll, delivering Roh the
nomination. Insiders tried to deselect him; at one point he trailed third in the
polls. But on the day in December 2002 he narrowly defeated a stiff conservative
former judge. Koreans wanted a change. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>In office Roh proved divisive. The
establishment hated him, and he them. Shunning and at one point suing the
conservative print dailies, Roh favoured left-leaning online news sites like
Ohmynews. He promoted the radical 386 generation: in their 30s, at college in
the 1980s and born in the 1960s. Populist and anti-American, the 386ers sounded
a new assertive note. Roh himself, who unusually had never visited the US before
(though he wrote a book about Abraham Lincoln), riposted by saying he did not
see why he should go just to kowtow.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>But the left were soon
disappointed. Roh sent troops to Iraq, and in 2007 signed a free trade accord
(still unratified) with the US, in the teeth of fierce street protests: a Korean
speciality. If Iraq was a sop to Bush so that Roh could continue a ‘sunshine’
policy of engaging North Korea, the FTA seemed a real change of heart, rejecting
the old ‘fortress Korea’ mentality.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>Policies apart, Roh’s style
grated. His mouth tended to run away with him. This spontaneity, refreshing at
first, was often combative, could be crude and lacked gravitas. He admitted that
on official trips – including the first ever Korean state visit to the UK, in
2004 – he packed <EM>ramyon </EM>(instant noodles); all that foreign nosh was
uncongenial. Having no English small-talk was a problem too: by the time you
beckoned the interpreter, the moment had passed.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>At home Roh was forever upsetting
applecarts, not least his own. Within weeks of becoming president, he wondered
aloud if he was up to the job and suggested a referendum on his rule. In March
2004 he got one – as the first South Korean president ever to be impeached,
which a simple apology could have prevented. A popular backlash in his favour
then gave his party a majority in elections in April. In May the Constitutional
Court threw out his impeachment. Roh, and Korea, bounced back from an unnerving
roller-coaster largely of his own making.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>Thus it continued. In 2007 as his
term drew to a close, after years of antagonizing the Right on issues ranging
from collaboration with past dictatorships to restricting elite schools, Roh
startled friend and foe alike by proposing an alliance with the conservative
opposition. The latter rejected this. Their candidate Lee Myung-bak, a formaer
Hyundai CEO and mayor of Seoul, won a landslide in December 2007’s presidential
election – over a centre-left which by then was desperate to distance itself
from Roh, seen as a bungling, mercurial liability.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>Still, at least he was clean.
Scorning Seoul, Roh retired to a new house in his native village, where he grew
organic rice, drank with the locals and blogged. In recent months this idyll
darkened. A bribery scandal involving a Pusan shoemaker (a local supplier to
Nike), Park Yeon-cha, was said to implicate Roh’s family. On April 7 Roh
admitted his wife took money from Park to settle a debt. On April 30 he was
driven to Seoul for a grilling that lasted till the small hours. Amid rumours
from a suspiciously leaky prosecutor’s office – political bias is alleged – that
Roh solicited $6 million from Park, he feared indictment, humiliation and jail.
His death has halted this, sparing his family; but the full truth may now never
be known.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>“Discard me”, Roh wrote in his
blog. For all his flaws, future history will judge him less harshly than that.
His very weakness helped democracy. No emperor, he delegated and did not abuse
power markedly. The economy grew at a fair clip, even if he had no clear vision
for it – except a failed bid to move the capital from Seoul so as to promote
regional equality.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>His finest hour came in October
2007. Solemnly walking across the Demilitarized Zone, he drove on Pyongyang for
a summit with Kim Jong-il whose results belied low expectations, launching
wide-ranging business deals with the North. For a few months the two Koreas met
daily and cooperated concretely. Roh’s successor Lee junked all this, just as in
2003 George W Bush brusquely ditched Bill Clinton’s outreach to North Korea.
<EM>Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.</EM> Perhaps sunshine was appeasement,
but does anyone have a better idea? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><FONT size=4>An odd mix of Candide-like
innocence and often misplaced guile, Roh Moo-hyun could be a fool – and a
hypocrite if he was not after all squeaky-clean. Yet he was a breath of fresh
air, and his street-smart instincts did not lack vision. His end is a tragedy,
for him and for Korea.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p><FONT
size=4> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN><FONT size=4><EM>Roh
Moo-hyun, politician; born August 6 1946, died May 23 2009</EM>.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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