Ex-Japanese PM Fukuda to attend Roh's funeral

(ATTN: ADDS China's plan in para 6)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will attend
the public funeral of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun slated for
Friday, government officials said Thursday.
Fukuda will lead the Japanese delegation to the funeral to be held at Gyeongbok
Palace in central Seoul, they added, while the United States also plans to send a
group of emissaries to the event.
Fukuda, who served as Japan's prime minister for a year from September in 2007,
had talks with Roh in November of that year on the sidelines of a summit of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with South Korea, Japan and China
in Singapore.
"The U.S. will send a delegation headed by its ambassador to Seoul, Kathleen
Stephens, which includes Alexander Arvizu, deputy assistant secretary of state
for East Asia and Pacific, Michael Green, former senior director for Asian
affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) and Victor Cha, former director
for Asian affairs at the NSC," foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.
Uzbekistan has informed South Korea of its plan to dispatch Vice Economy Minister
Galina Saidova, he added.
China will send Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Cheng Yonghua to the funeral
rather than a delegation, according to diplomatic sources in Beijing.
The United Nations, Indonesia, and Mongolia are also moving to send emissaries to
the funeral, according to Moon.
Many other countries reportedly plan to have their ambassadors here attend
instead of sending new delegates.
Roh, who was South Korea's president from 2003-2008, jumped to his death from a
cliff near his retirement home in southern South Korea last weekend amid
allegations that he was involved in a bribery scandal.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)