Joined the endless queue of people awaited for paying tribute to now the deceased former president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun. After standing on the pedestrian road approximately three hours, finally the temporarily set altar appeared through the crowd. Strange mixture of emotions whipped around the people; overwhelming grief was interrupted by an occasional complaints towards surrounding riot police forces, and so did the tension rise. Strange enough, there were also a drop of festive mood; street musicians playing instruments of which sound deeply surmerged into saddened hearts of thousands of the crowd, tired from the hours of standing in a hot Indian summer night, fighting mosquitoes. Volunteers were busy cleaning up the area, maintaining an order, and delivering a cup of cold water, Kimbap and chrysanthemuns to the crowd. As the darkness came, people gradually lit up candles. The scene was peaceful and even beautiful to observe. Still though, on the way home, complaints politically charged and directly aiming at the crowd pierced through the air. Tension existed so did chances to communicate.
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May 26, 2009
South Korea’s President Faces Dual Crises
By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea faced double crises on Monday as a North Korean nuclear test caught his government off-guard and he struggled to soothe political rancor over the suicide of his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun.
In one of the biggest outpourings of national grief in years, the central and provincial governments and religious and civic groups opened 300 mourning centers across the country on Monday. Long lines of Cabinet ministers and ordinary citizens streamed into the centers to pay respects to Mr. Roh. About 180,000 mourners have journeyed to Mr. Roh’s rural home village of Bongha on the south coast alone.
The country’s major Web sites have posted a black-and-white photo of Mr. Roh and created special sections to permit hundreds of thousands of citizens to post their condolences.
The former president jumped off a cliff on Saturday as prosecutors investigated allegations that he and his family took $6.4 million from a businessman.
Many South Koreans said they believe that Mr. Roh, whether guilty or not, was driven to end his life because of relentless pressure from a politically motivated investigation orchestrated by the government of President Lee.
“He is the victim of the vicious circle of an incumbent president strengthening his political hand by relentlessly shaming and trampling on his predecessor in our country,” Yang Chun-shik, a 35-year-old office worker, said Monday, reflecting a common view shared by mourners interviewed Sunday and Monday.
Mr. Lee must decide whether to accept the Roh family’s wish to hold his funeral on Friday in central Seoul. That would certainly draw a huge crowd and could turn into an anti-government protest similar to demonstrations that crippled Mr. Lee’s government for weeks last summer.
In a sign of simmering tension, Mr. Roh’s supporters continued to turn away ruling-party lawmakers who travelled to Bongha to pay tribute.
As he struggled over how to prevent Mr. Roh’s funeral from developing into another crisis, Mr. Lee also faced the news Monday that North Korea had conducted its second nuclear test.
Earlier Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had expressed “profound condolences” to Mr. Roh’s widow, Kwon Yang-sook, but gave the Seoul government no hint of the nuclear test.
Mr. Roh, who sought reconciliation with North Korea while in office from 2003 to 2008, traveled to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in 2007 for a landmark summit with Mr. Kim. But inter-Korean ties chilled dramatically after Mr. Lee took office in February 2008, promising a tougher policy on the North.
