The sound of wailing pierced the air as tens of thousands of South Koreans streamed to a rural village Sunday to pay their respects to former President Roh Moo-hyun a day after he killed himself by jumping off a rocky cliff overlooking his home.
But several top officials, including the prime minister, were turned away from the mourning rites for the liberal ex-leader, who had a fractious relationship with his conservative opponents. Roh supporters pelted a bus carrying conservative politicians with eggs and doused lawmakers with water.
The 62-year-old Roh, who relied on pluck and hard work to rise from his impoverished youth in rural Gimhae to become president in 2003, died Saturday after jumping from a promontory known as Owl's Rock that overlooks his home. He left behind a note describing his suffering over corruption allegations and asking to be cremated.
The government and Roh's family agreed to hold a public ``people's funeral' after a seven-day mourning period, most likely on Friday, former Roh aide Han Hyung-min said. Roh's suicide, just 15 months after he left office, came as he and his family faced intense questioning about $6 million given to the Rohs during his presidency by a Seoul businessman implicated in a number of bribery scandals. The allegations weighed heavily on a man who prided himself on his ``clean' record in a country struggling to shake a tradition of corruption. Prosecutors had been grilling Roh, his wife and their two children since last month.
``What's left for me for the rest of my life is just to be a burden to others,' Roh wrote in a note on his computer minutes before leaving for the final hike to Owl's Rock with a security guard. ``Don't be too sad. Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't feel sorry. Don't blame anybody. It's destiny.' Roh's suicide stunned the nation of 49 million, which was divided during his presidency between those critical of his outspoken, antiestablishment ways and others who rallied around his efforts to promote democracy and fight corruption.
Braving a downpour, nearly 80,000 trekked Sunday to Bongha, the village 280 miles (450 kilometers) south of Seoul where Roh had lived since leaving office, to pay their respects at mourning tents erected at the community center, police said. Hundreds of Buddhist monks in gray robes and wide-brimmed hats held a solemn prayer service.
But not all visitors were welcomed. Roh supporters accuse South Korea's conservative right, led by President Lee Myung-bak and the Grand National Party, of pushing the corruption probe believed to have driven Roh to despair. Prime Minister Han Seung-soo was turned away. Roh backers hurled eggs at a bus carrying Lee Hoi-chang, the conservative who lost the presidential election to Roh in 2002, and doused water on other political opponents, news reports said.
President Lee was also considering paying his respects, reports said. The mood Sunday in Seoul was somber. A line at Chogye Temple snaked around the lawn and into the street as Seoulites, many dressed in black and bearing flowers, waited to pay their respects. Many sobbed as they knelt before his smiling portrait.
At a mourning site outside Seoul's 16th-century Deoksu Palace, more than 16,000 waited in long lines to place white flowers, cigarettes _ Roh had recently started smoking _ and melons before portraits of the ex-leader. ``I'm really sad. I can feel how much pressure he had been suffering,' said Moon Hye-kyung, a 47-year-old businesswoman, wiping away tears with a handkerchief. ``I think he could have endured the pressure if it was levelled against only him, not his family members and aides.'
Minor scuffles broke out between riot police and Roh supporters collecting signatures for a petition calling for Lee's impeachment. World leaders offered Roh's wife and children their condolences.
President Barack Obama said he was ``saddened' by the news of Roh's death, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, said he was ``shocked and deeply saddened.' ``I pay tribute to the late President Roh, who exerted tireless efforts to promote democracy, undertake various reform measures and paved the way for building an advanced society in Korea,' Ban said in a statement Sunday. ``May he rest in peace.'
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