Bereaved families concede to burying fallen marines Saturday

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- Family members of the two marines who died in a North
Korean artillery attack earlier this week accepted the military's account of the
deaths, paving the way for the victims' funeral to be held on Saturday.
The bereaved families had refused to discuss funeral arrangements with the Marine
Corps before receiving a full account of the deaths of their loved ones. S. Sgt.
Seo Jeong-woo, 22, and L. Cpl. Mun Gwang-wook, 20, were killed by shrapnel from
North Korean shells on Tuesday, while fulfilling their two-year mandatory
military services on the western South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.
The barrage of gunfire, the deadliest blatant attack by the North since the end
of the 1950-53 Korean War, also killed two civilians and wounded 18 people,
including three residents.
"S. Sgt. Seo was standing at a dock to leave for his last holiday before
discharge when the North started firing artillery, and he was ordered to return
to his unit," Col. Kim Tae-eun of the Marine Corps Command told the victims'
families late Wednesday at a military hospital where the bodies lie. "On his way
back with two colleagues, he got off a car 700 meters before reaching his unit
and was hit by shrapnel some 300m in front of an air-raid shelter."
Seo was rushed to a local hospital but died of his wounds, Kim said.
Around the same time, L. Cpl. Mun was taking part in a monthly drill and had just
left an evacuation shelter toward the end of the exercise, when shrapnel from a
nearby shell explosion penetrated his chest, according to Kim.
After hearing the explanations, family members of the two late officers agreed to
proceed with funeral arrangements and accepted the Marine Corps' offer to hold a
ceremony at the hospital in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, Saturday morning,
after which the bodies will be laid to rest at the National Cemetery in Daejeon,
some 160 kilometers south of the capital. The ceremony is being held on the fifth
day of their deaths in honor of their sacrifices, while most Korean funerals take
place on the third day of a person's death.
The military also plans to accept the families' request to tour the site of the
attack.
Mourners across the nation have continued to pay their respects to the deceased,
streaming to altars and posting words of condolences online. Nearly 1,900
mourners had visited a joint altar for the two officers at the military hospital
as of early Thursday morning, while former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
is due to pay a visit later in the day.
"Attacks on the homes of civilians should never take place. I am strongly against
an escalation of war, but this is something we can't ignore. My condolences go
out to Seo Jeong-woo, Mun Gwang-wook, Kim Chi-baek and Bae Bok-cheol. I wish for
the world to be full of peace and love," a netizen by the username of
"poroporomi" wrote on Twitter, referring to the four men killed.
"May the souls of Kim Chi-baek and Bae Bok-cheol rest in peace in heaven. What a
bolt out of the blue for two people who were working as hard as ever. I'm so
sorry," wrote another Twitter user named "dlwehfhr."
hague@yna.co.kr
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