Roh Moo-hyun

Roh Moo-hyun GOM (Korean: 노무현, pronounced [no muçʌn]; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008.

Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists in South Korea. His electoral career later expanded to a focus on overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics, culminating in his election to the presidency. He achieved a large following among younger internet users, which aided his success in the presidential election. Roh's election was notable for the arrival in power of a new generation of Korean politicians, the so-called 386 Generation (people in their thirties, when the term was coined, who had attended university in the 1980s and who were born in the 1960s). This generation had been veterans of student protests against authoritarian rule and advocated a conciliatory approach towards North Korea, even at the expense of good relations with the United States. Roh himself was the first South Korean president to be born after the end of Japanese rule in Korea.