S. Koreans Bid Farewell to Former President

A huge portrait of the late former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun leads the funeral hearse in downtown Seoul Friday. / Yonhap

Clad in black and holding yellow ribbons, hundreds of thousands of weeping South Koreans packed central Seoul Friday, bidding farewell to former President Roh Moo-hyun, lauded as a fighter against authoritarianism and regional divisions.

Roh died Saturday at the age of 62, leaping from a cliff b behind his rural home amid a bribery investigation that tarnished his legacy as an anti-corruption fighter. He served as the country's leader from 2003 to 2008.

A state-organized funeral was held Friday at an ancient royal palace in Seoul, attended by some 3,000 dignitaries, including President Lee Myung-bak, former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam, lawmakers and diplomats in Seoul.

"We have gathered here today to bid goodbye to former President Roh Moo-hyun who spent his life fighting for human rights, democracy and the end of authoritarianism," Prime Minister Han Seung-soo was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency in his memorial address at Gyeongbok Palace.

Roh's former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook said in tears, "Sorry, we love you, rest in peace."

A crowd of people waving yellow, the color Roh used for his 2002 presidential election, began to march down the streets after watching the ceremony on large screens outside the palace. Police tightened surveillance to prevent any protests by Roh supporters who claim the incumbent administration drove him to death with a politically motivated probe.

"You are a political murderer!" Baek Won-woo, an opposition party lawmaker, shouted at President Lee as he was offering a flower to the deceased during the funeral, immediately being dragged out by security guards. The main opposition Democratic Party has been mounting calls for an official apology from Lee and his party for Roh's suicide.

Roh's sudden death triggered a mass outpouring of grief for days across the nation, which was divided during Roh's presidency over his bold policies challenging regionalism, polarization of wealth and a reconciliatory approach toward North Korea.

Millions of mourners have paid their respects at some 140 altars nationwide with authorities lining up riot police in Seoul and elsewhere to prevent the gatherings from turning into anti-government demonstrations.

Some one million people have visited the memorial site in Roh's home village Bongha, where the former president retired after leaving office in February last year, according to officials of the funeral committee.

"I miss him so much already," said college student Kim Eun-joo, who attended the funeral with other members of Roh's support group Nosamo, a Korean acronym for "people who love Roh." "I just hope he remembers how much we loved him and how much we regret having ever doubted him."

A massive memorial rite was held at Seoul Plaza after the funeral to wish the deceased a peaceful repose before the hearse and the convoy head to Suwon, adjacent to Seoul, for cremation.

"I lay awake with frustration at night because he is gone and I do not know whom to blame for his death," said office worker Moon Han-yong. "I just never thought he was suffering enough to take his own life. I am so sad, so angry."

Born to a poor family in Gimhae, southeastern Korea, Roh became a self-taught human rights lawyer who earned fame for representing college students detained and tortured by counterespionage officers in 1981 for studying leftist theories.

Especially popular among the younger generation for his bold reformist beliefs, Roh was elected president in 2002 with supporters using the new medium of the Internet to create a loyal following.

Just 15 months after he returned to Bongha Village, Roh became mired in a bribery scandal involving $6 million he and his family had allegedly received from a wealthy businessman. Becoming the third former president in the nation to appear before prosecutors, Roh denied personal ties to the scandal.

Roh's body will be cremated and the ashes will be taken back for burial near Bongha, about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as he requested in a note left to family just before his death.