By Hwang Jang-jin

"It has been too hard so far. I have caused too much difficulty for people," wrote former President Roh Moo-hyun in his suicide note, sources said.

He left a brief note to his family before he went to a mountain near his home and plunged to his death from a cliff, his former top secretary and close friend Moon Jae-in said.

"I am even unable to read books. Do not blame," he wrote, adding "Is not life and death one and the same?"

He asked to be cremated and that his tombstone be set up in his hometown.

Roh, 62, had been under investigation for allegations that his family received more than $6 million from a businessman.

Just before jumping, he asked his guard, "Do you have a cigarette?"

The official replied that he did not and offered to fetch one. "You need not," Roh was quoted as saying.

He then looked at the people below the cliff, his guard said.

"There are people going," he said calmly, before plunging.

-The Korea Herald/Asia News Network