BONGHA: The sound of wailing pierced the air as tens of thousands of South Koreans streamed to a rural village on Sunday to pay their respects to former President Roh Moo-hyun a day after he killed himself by jumping off a rocky cliff overlooking his home.

But several top officials, including the prime minister, were turned away from the mourning rites for the liberal ex-leader, who had a fractious relationship with his conservative opponents. Roh supporters pelted a bus carrying conservative politicians with eggs and doused lawmakers with water. Roh, 62, who relied on pluck and hard work to rise from his impoverished youth in rural Gimhae to become president in 2003, died yesterday after jumping from a promontory known as Owl’s Rock that overlooks his home.

He left behind a note describing his suffering over corruption allegations and asking to be cremated. The government and Roh’s family agreed to hold a public “people’s funeral” after a seven-day mourning period, most likely on Friday, former Roh aide Han Hyung-min said. Roh’s suicide, just 15 months after he left office, came as he and his family faced intense questioning about $6 million given to the Rohs during his presidency by a Seoul businessman implicated in a number of bribery scandals.

The allegations weighed heavily on a man who prided himself on his “clean” record in a country struggling to shake a tradition of corruption. Prosecutors had been grilling Roh, his wife and their two children since last month. “What’s left for me for the rest of my life is just to be a burden to others,” Roh wrote in a note on his computer minutes before leaving for the final hike to Owl’s Rock with a security guard. “Don’t be too sad. Aren’t life and death both part of nature? Don’t feel sorry. Don’t blame anybody. It’s destiny.” Braving a downpour, nearly 80,000 South Koreans today trekked to Bongha, the village 450 kilometres south of Seoul, where Roh had lived since leaving office, to pay their respects.