North Korea reports news of Roh's death

(ATTN: UPDATES lead, throughout with inter-Korean exchanges over dignitaries'
deaths, N.K's English report, TRIMS)
SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday reported the death of former
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who pushed for reconciliation with Pyongyang
and visited the North for an historic inter-Korean summit.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Roh died Saturday morning and cited
media reports "linking the motive of his death with the mental burden caused by
the intensive investigation of the prosecution."
The two-sentence report did not say what the investigation was about.
The two Koreas exchanged messages and delegations to pay tribute to late
dignitaries amid thawed relations during a decade of liberal rule in South Korea
ending with Roh.
When pastor Moon Ik-hwan, a unification activist jailed for visiting Pyongyang
during the Cold War era in 1989, died in early 1994, then North Korean President
Kim Il-sung sent a message of condolence to his family the following day. His
personal tribute to Moon was carried separately by the North's state media.
For the 2001 death of Chung Ju-young, the founder of Hyundai Group who initiated
South Korean investment in the North, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a
message of condolence to his family, which was also carried by state media a day
after Chung's death.
North Korea also sent a delegation to the funeral service for Lee Jong-wook,
director-general of the World Health Organization, in Geneva in 2006.
South Korea did not officially pay its condolences over the death of Kim Il-sung
in the summer of 1994, but it has since delivered official tributes to late North
Korean dignitaries.
While in office from 2003 to 2008, Roh sought to reconcile the Koreas while
opening up North Korea with unconditional economic aid and broad political and
cultural exchanges. Rice and fertilizer aid was steadily given to the North even
after its nuclear test in 2006.
Roh held the second inter-Korean summit with Kim Jong-il in late 2007.
The so-called "sunshine policy" initiated by the previous Kim Dae-jung
administration and maintained by Roh was withdrawn when conservative President
Lee Myung-bak took office last year. Turning tough on Pyongyang's nuclear program
and human rights record, Lee ended government aid to the impoverished country.
Pyongyang cut off government-level dialogue in retaliation.
Roh and his family were under investigation on allegations that they received
bribes from a local businessman, charges the former president persistently
denied.
Roh leaped to his death from a cliff behind his home on Saturday, shocking the
nation and fueling criticism over the way prosecutors and the media handled the
case.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)