Tens of thousands of mourners journeyed May 24 to the southern village where former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun killed himself by jumping off a rocky cliff overlooking his home.

Roh Moo-hyun AP PHOTO

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 conservative opponents his supporters accuse of driving Roh to his death. They pelted a bus carrying conservative politicians with eggs and doused lawmakers with water.

The 62-year-old Roh, who relied on pluck and hard work to rise from his impoverished youth in rural Gimhae to become president in 2003, died May 23 after jumping from a promontory known as Owl's Rock that overlooks his home.

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."