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Governor Park Tae-young, the 63-year-old governor of South Jeolla Province, stopped his car on the middle of Seoul's Banpo Bridge at 12:48 p.m. Thursday and jumped into the Han River in an apparent suicide.
He was rescued from the water by Yongsan police and emergency personnel and brought to nearby Suncheonhyang Hospital, where he soon died.
Park was undergoing his third session of questioning for involvement in personnel and procurement irregularities when he was president of the National Health Insurance Corporation.
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Late South Jeolla Province Governor Park Tae-young (left), former president of Daewoo Engineering and Construction Nam Sang-guk and Busan Mayor Ahn Sang-yong, all took their lives.
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Prosecutors had been questioning Park since Tuesday concerning suspicions that he was involved in his subordinates' corruption during his time as National Health Insurance Corp. president. If those suspicions had been substantiated, prosecutors were going to press for an arrest warrant.
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The United Liberal Democrats lawmaker Rhee In-je (left) and his supporters look relieved as prosecutors withdraw their plan to arrest Rhee for allegations of accepting slush funds on Thursday./Yonhap
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The reasons behind Park's suicide are not yet clear, but they appear to be related to psychological pressure resulting from the recent investigations.
In the meantime, after the news of ParkĄ¯s suicide reached the prosecutorsĄ¯ office, prosecutors immediately called off its plan to arrest the United Liberal Democrats lawmaker Rhee In-je, who is suspected of receiving slush funds.
Prosecutors sent an arrest team to Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province to take Rhee into custody prior to the issuance of the arrest warrant. However, as ParkĄ¯s death was made known around 1:30 p.m., prosecutors withdrew the arrest team. With Park's sudden death, prosecutors thought it best to avoid physical conflict that might arise during the Rhee's arrest which could result in an oppressive image for the prosecutors.
Up till now, Hyundai Asan chairman Chung Mong-hun, Busan Mayor Ahn Sang-yong, former president of Daewoo Engineering and Construction Nam Sang-guk, chief director of Gwangju University Kim In-Kon, and a civil servant in Busan Regional Tax Office all took their lives before or during prosecutors' investigations. With the consecutive suicide deaths of investigation suspects, prosecutors said they are carefully inquiring into this matter with a heavy heart.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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