S. Korea mourns fallen sailors
Source: Agencies |
April 30, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
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SOUTH Korea laid to rest 46 sailors killed in the sinking of a naval warship during an emotional burial yesterday.
Wailing families placed white chrysanthemums, burned incense and bowed in front of the framed photos of the men before their cremated ashes were buried at the country's national cemetery in the central city of Daejeon.
Buddhist and Christian clergy offered prayers and a dirge was played.
Some mothers clad in black Korean traditional mourning dress wailed uncontrollably, touching photos of their sons and their urns wrapped in white cloth.
"It's your mother! Please answer me! Please answer me!" one mother shouted.
The sailors went down with the Cheonan near the tense western sea border with North Korea on March 26 just after it was torn apart by what investigators believe was an underwater blast from outside the ship.
The bodies of 40 sailors were recovered, while six others remain unaccounted for, presumed dead. Belongings of the missing were burned and the ashes were among those buried yesterday.
Earlier yesterday, sirens blared across South Korea when the funeral started at the 2nd Fleet headquarters in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, the ship's home base.
Warships anchored there sounded whistles, and seamen aboard saluted when the vehicles carrying the ashes left for the cemetery.
President Lee Myung-bak and his wife, who joined 2,800 mourners, paid homage to the sailors, as buglers played taps.
Former President Chun Doo-hwan, lawmakers and military leaders also paid respects to those who died in one of South Korea's worst naval disasters.
The name of each sailor was read out while Lee, clad in a black suit and tie, placed military decorations on a giant alter below photos of each man.
They had all been posthumously promoted by one rank in recent days.
"The Cheonan is engraved as history into the people's hearts and your honorable sacrifice is being reborn as patriotism," Chief Petty Officer Kim Hyun-rae, one of the 58 survivors of the disaster, said in an address to the funeral.
Lee quietly wept as he listened to Kim's speech.
About 3,000 white and black balloons were released into the air.
"We cannot forgive this and must not forgive it and must not forget it," Navy Chief of Staff Kim Sung-chan said in a speech at the funeral. "We will never sit idly by in the face of whoever inflicted huge pain to our people."
Wailing families placed white chrysanthemums, burned incense and bowed in front of the framed photos of the men before their cremated ashes were buried at the country's national cemetery in the central city of Daejeon.
Buddhist and Christian clergy offered prayers and a dirge was played.
Some mothers clad in black Korean traditional mourning dress wailed uncontrollably, touching photos of their sons and their urns wrapped in white cloth.
"It's your mother! Please answer me! Please answer me!" one mother shouted.
The sailors went down with the Cheonan near the tense western sea border with North Korea on March 26 just after it was torn apart by what investigators believe was an underwater blast from outside the ship.
The bodies of 40 sailors were recovered, while six others remain unaccounted for, presumed dead. Belongings of the missing were burned and the ashes were among those buried yesterday.
Earlier yesterday, sirens blared across South Korea when the funeral started at the 2nd Fleet headquarters in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, the ship's home base.
Warships anchored there sounded whistles, and seamen aboard saluted when the vehicles carrying the ashes left for the cemetery.
President Lee Myung-bak and his wife, who joined 2,800 mourners, paid homage to the sailors, as buglers played taps.
Former President Chun Doo-hwan, lawmakers and military leaders also paid respects to those who died in one of South Korea's worst naval disasters.
The name of each sailor was read out while Lee, clad in a black suit and tie, placed military decorations on a giant alter below photos of each man.
They had all been posthumously promoted by one rank in recent days.
"The Cheonan is engraved as history into the people's hearts and your honorable sacrifice is being reborn as patriotism," Chief Petty Officer Kim Hyun-rae, one of the 58 survivors of the disaster, said in an address to the funeral.
Lee quietly wept as he listened to Kim's speech.
About 3,000 white and black balloons were released into the air.
"We cannot forgive this and must not forgive it and must not forget it," Navy Chief of Staff Kim Sung-chan said in a speech at the funeral. "We will never sit idly by in the face of whoever inflicted huge pain to our people."
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