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Skorea President to personally pay respects to Roh

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-25 10:22

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak has also decided to personally pay his respects to his late predecessor,Yonhap news service reported.

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"Whatever he does, he will pay tribute in person," a senior official at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, noting the president will likely visit Roh's retirement home in Bongha Village, some 450 kilometers south of Seoul.

Roh and his wife, Kwon, had settled in the rural town following his retirement in February 2008.

After the funeral service, Roh will be laid to rest near his residence in Bongha Village, according to his family spokesman Cheon, who served as a senior presidential secretary for public information in the Roh administration.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and his predecessor Han Myeong-sook, who served as prime minister under Roh, will jointly head a government committee that will organize and oversee the state-arranged funeral service, he said.

The former president in the note to his family asked that his body be cremated and a small stone monument be set up for him in the village.