Roh`s ashes to be buried near home

The ashes of late former President Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide Saturday morning, are likely to be buried on a hill behind his retirement home in Bongha village, Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.

According to Roh`s aides, the former first lady Kwon Yang-sook, Roh`s brother Gun-pyeong and other bereaved family members looked around the hill with a geomancer accompanying them.

Before leaping into his death from a cliff near his residence, the former president left a suicide note, in which he told his family to cremate his body and build a small monument near his house.



His official funeral service will be held Friday at the front yard of Gyeongbok Palace, a landmark ancient palace in central Seoul after the seven-day mourning period ends.

Thousands of mourners continued to bid farewell to the late president at mourning sites across the nation yesterday.

While official mortuaries were visited mainly by big-name politicians and high-ranking government officials, ordinary citizens preferred makeshift altars established by Roh`s supporters.

One of them was the mourning site near the Deoksu Palace in central Seoul. Despite many riot police surrounding the area, mourners paid their respects to Roh, waiting more than three hours in line.

There are also no signs that the number of mourners visiting Bongha village is waning. As of yesterday, more than 600,000 people were estimated to have had visited the village since Roh`s passing.

Even though it was a weekday, the village was still crowded.

Oh Jae-ho, principal of nearby Daechang Elementary School, Roh`s alma mater, paid tribute to the former president along with 30 students.

"Study is important, but we came here to offer our respects to Roh, who showed a particular affection for our students," he said.

A new fact was confirmed yesterday that Roh had offered a farewell to his late parents before committing suicide.

A police investigation found that he had dropped by Jeongtowon, a small temple where the memorial tablets of his parents are enshrined, before heading to the cliff where he leapt to his death. The temple is located just 200 meters away from the cliff.

"The former president used to visit here before a bribery scandal involving him broke out," said Seon Jin-kyu, director of the temple. "I couldn`t imagine his memorial tablet will be enshrined here as well this soon."

By Lee Ji-yoon

(jylee@heraldm.com)