Shock and grief shroud nation
Mourners wait in long lines yesterday to leave flower tributes at an altar for former President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday in Bongha Village, Gimhae, South Gyeongsang. [NEWSIS]
The Korean government has agreed with former administration officials and the surviving family of former President Roh Moo-hyun to accord him a seven-day national period of mourning and a people’s funeral. The late president’s cremated remains will be buried near his home in Bongha Village on Friday, instead of at the national cemetery.
President Lee Myung-bak will visit the town of Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, to pay his respects to Roh, a key official at the Blue House said in a press briefing. Whether his visit will be made during the mourning period or at the official funeral service has not been decided. “If anyone takes issue with the current head of state visiting the shrine of his predecessor, that will be shameful,” said the official. The Blue House yesterday sent another floral tribute to Bongha, after a group of Roh’s angry followers destroyed one sent on Saturday.
Cheon Ho-seon, Roh’s former presidential spokesman, told reporters, “Although there were various opinions about the funeral, we have opted for a people’s funeral instead of a family funeral, to honor the former president and enable more citizens to visit and pay homage.” He said the mourning period will be between May 23 and 29 and the official funeral service will be held on Friday at a public square in Gimhae.
Roh will be cremated as he requested in his will and will be buried in the village where he ended his life at 62 by jumping off a cliff. It has been conventional for former presidents to be laid to rest at one of the national cemeteries in Seoul and Daejeon.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun.
The Ministry of Public Affairs said the government will establish official shrines in central Seoul at the Seoul Museum of History near Gwanghwamun and at Seoul Station for visitors from abroad and neighboring areas.
People’s funerals are held for incumbent or former presidents, prime ministers, National Assembly speakers, first ladies and chief justices of the Supreme Court as well as people respected by the entire nation for making enormous contributions to the nation and society. They are partially subsidized by the government and take seven days. On the day of the actual funeral, public institutions are required to hang the national flag at half-mast.
In state funerals, the government provides all of the funding. A state funeral period lasts nine days. Of all presidents of the republic, only Park Chung Hee, who was assassinated in 1979, has been given a state funeral.
While Korea’s 10th president, Choi Kyu-hah, who died in 2006, had a people’s funeral, the funerals for Syngman Rhee, the first president of Korea, and Yun Po-sun, who succeeded Rhee, were held by their families only. Choi’s official funeral service took place in front of Gyeongbok Palace in downtown Seoul in the presence of former and incumbent presidents, except for Roh Tae-woo, the 13th.
Meanwhile, citizens with black ribbons on their chests crowded into a makeshift mourning altar in front of Daehanmun, the gate to Deoksu Palace near Seoul Metropolitan City Hall beginning early in the morning yesterday. A pro-Roh group estimates that around 60,000 mourners have visited the site over the past two days. Hundreds of makeshift altars were erected nationwide and Koreans in major U.S. cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, also mourned the death of the former president.
Roh’s support group, Nosamo, set up the shrine late near Deoksu Palace Saturday afternoon and thousands of people visited through the night. Up to 50 people stayed the whole night to guard against possible police interference. Authorities had up to 1,000 riot police standing by from 12 companies in the neighborhood of Seoul City Hall on both days. The city hall and the Seoul Plaza that fronts it are surrounded by buses to block the entrance of mourners en masse.
Police said the measures were taken to prevent the possibility that the mourning services could develop into massive demonstrations like the anti-U.S. beef candlelight vigils in the area last year. Although some sporadic clashes between police and mourners were noted, no injuries or arrests occurred.
High-ranking officials of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office showed up at their headquarters over the weekend. The office’s public safety department said it is on high alert for anyone taking to the streets against the incumbent government, but deems the chance as low, given the mood and size of the crowds.
Many state events were canceled or scaled back yesterday out of respect for the late Roh. The Seoul Metropolitan Government canceled a festival that was to celebrate the month of families at Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul while the annual Icheon Ceramic Festival called off its closing ceremony.
In an unusually prompt reaction, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency yesterday reported the death of Roh. In an article titled, “South Korea’s former President Roh Moo-hyun dies,” the report only said that Roh died Saturday morning, without mentioning that he committed suicide.
“South Korean and foreign news reports connect the motivation of Roh’s death with his psychological burden from the prosecution’s oppressive probe,” the report said. Should North Korea officially offer to send delegates for condolence, according to a key official at the Blue House, the decision to accept the offer will “highly depend on what Roh’s surviving family thinks.”
By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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