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SKorea to host funeral for Roh on Friday

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-25 10:18

SEOUL-- A funeral service for former President Roh Moo-hyun will be held this week near his rural home in the country's southeast as the government and his family agreed Sunday to hold a "people's funeral" following a seven-day mourning period,Yonhap news service reported.

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The service will be held Friday at a public stadium in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, according to Cheon Ho-sun, a spokesman for Roh's family.

Under current law, South Korea's former and incumbent heads of state are entitled to a state or a people's funeral. A state funeral follows a nine-day mourning period and has only been held once here for the late former President Park Chung-hee.

The agreement between the government and Roh's family came after negotiations over the family's initial request for a private funeral.

Roh, 62, died early Saturday after he fell from a cliff near his home in Bongha Village, some 450 kilometers south of Seoul.

The police have tentatively concluded that the former head of state leaped to his death as a memo that appeared to be a suicide note was later found on his computer.

"The police conducted an in-depth analysis of the computer yesterday in the presence of his family, and we found no evidence of manipulation, such as traces of another person writing the note," Lee No-gu, chief of the investigation bureau at the South Gyeongsang police agency, said.