Kim Dae-jung buried at national cemetery after state funeral

(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks from Kim's wife, additional details; CHANGES headline,
lead)
By Byun Duk-kun and Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Yonhap) -- Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, a lifelong
champion of democracy, inter-Korean reconciliation and human rights, was laid to
rest at Seoul National Cemetery in southern Seoul Sunday after a somber state
funeral.
Over 20,000 people, including President Lee Myung-bak and other high-level
politicians and foreign delegates, attended the ceremony held at a plaza in front
of the National Assembly in Yeouido, central Seoul.
Kim died Tuesday at age 85 following a prolonged battle with pneumonia.
"You dedicated your entire life to promoting human rights, peace and inter-Korean
reconciliation. Your footprints will forever remain as part of our proud
history," Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said in his eulogy to the late Kim.
"The whole nation will strive to open a new era of national unity, leaving behind
regional, class, ideological and generational confrontations," said Han, who
headed a 2,371-member committee that made arrangements for the nation's
second-ever state funeral.
South Korea's first and only other state funeral was held in 1979 for then
President Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated while still in office. The late
Kim is the first former head of state honored with a state funeral.
In a separate memorial address, a tearful Park Young-sook, a long-time supporter
of the late Kim, said, "We return our respect and affection back to you. Your
life was turbulent, so please take a comfortable rest."
The eulogies were followed by religious services representing all of South
Korea's major religions, including Catholicism and Buddhism.
Former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright, leading a 10-member U.S.
delegation to the funeral, mourned the loss of a "friend" and "amazing leader."
"President Kim Dae-jung was an amazing leader who set a good example to people in
Korea and also to the global community. He was a good friend and it's a great
loss," she told Yonhap News Agency.
Ordinary citizens also grieved at the loss of a political icon who to many became
almost a spiritual leader throughout the country's turbulent years of
democratization.
"It is our third loss of a great leader this year. I feel as if a strong fence
that protected us is now gone as President Kim died following the deaths of
Cardinal Stephen Kim and former President Roh Moo-hyun," Park Sung-je, a
38-year-old office worker from Seoul, said.
Born on a remote island in South Jeolla Province, Kim won the 1997 presidential
election to become the first opposition leader to take power and first South
Korean president to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
His efforts at reconciliation between the two Koreas under his famous "Sunshine
Policy" won him a Nobel Peace Prize later that year.
Following the hour-long funeral service, the motorcade carrying the coffin of the
late Kim arrived at Seoul National Cemetery after a brief visit to his private
home in Donggyo-dong, western Seoul.
The motorcade also passed through downtown's Seoul Plaza, where some 15,000
citizens gathered to hold their own farewell rituals.
"I wish you will follow my husband's footsteps toward peace and live your lives
in harmony with your neighbors. That is the wish of my late husband," Kim's
bereaved wife and former first lady Lee Hee-ho told a crowd of mourners at Seoul
Plaza.
Kim's death, meanwhile, appears to have opened new doors onto a possible easing
of tense relations between the divided Koreas as the North Korean leader sent a
group of six special envoys, including his top aide and ranking secretary of the
powerful Workers' Party, Kim Ki-nam.
The North Korean official, along with two other close aides of the North Korean
leader, met with the South Korean president here earlier Sunday and delivered a
personal message from their leader, according to Seoul's presidential office
Cheong Wa Dae.
Seoul-Pyongyang relations deteriorated to their lowest level in over a decade
since the Lee Myung-bak government was inaugurated 18 months ago with a pledge to
take a tougher stance on the North's nuclear programs and military provocations.
North Korea's relationship with the South, as well as the international
community, further soured this year as the communist nation launched a long-range
rocket in April and conducted its second atomic test the following month.
The North Korean delegation returned home shortly after the meeting carrying a
message from the South Korean president for their leader that calls for a
resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)