(August 6, 1946-May 23, 2009)
Born in Gimhae, Korea (South)
President of South Korea (2003-08)
Committed suicide by jumping from a cliff

Three months into his term, he declared, 'I feel incompetent as president.'
His presidency was marked by frequent labor unrest, feuds with the media and diplomatic disputes with Japan.
He tried to move the capital from Seoul to Chungcheong, until the plan was ruled unconstitutional.
He became so unpopular, his party's candidates were defeated in every one of Korea's electoral districts (2005).
At the time of his death, he was being investigated on charges of accepting $6 million in bribes.

In high school, he led a protest against the mandatory essays praising then-president Syngman Rhee.
Although he never attended college, he studied on his own to pass the bar exam (1975).
He became a human rights activist after defending students who had been tortured, saying 'When I saw their haunted eyes and their missing toenails... I became a man who wanted to make a difference in the world.'
Unlike previous Korean presidents who retired to heavily guarded houses in Seoul, he returned to his hometown, a village of 120 people.

Credit: C. Fishel

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