Two fallen marines laid to rest

By Park Si-soo

The funeral for two marines — Sgt. Seo Jeong-woo, 22, and Pvt. Moon Gwang-wuk, 20 — killed by the sudden shelling by North Korea of Yeonpyeong island last week, took place at a military hospital in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Saturday.

Bereaved family members, the prime minister and hundreds of other mourners paid a tearful farewell to the fallen soldiers.

In the nationally televised funeral, the commander of South Korea’s marines, Lt. Gen. Yoo Nak-joon, vowed to avenge the deaths a “thousand-fold.”

“We will put all our feelings of rage and animosity into our bones and take our revenge on North Korea,” the head of the Marine Corps said. “Rest in peace as eternal marines.”

After a silent prayer at the start of the service, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik laid flowers in front of the portraits of the two deceased, followed by political party leaders, including Ahn Sang-soo of the Grand National Party and Sohn Hak-kyu of the Democratic Party.

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, who stepped down last week after the incident for mishandling the attack, also paid his respects to the fallen soldiers.

Seo was struck by a North Korean shell while running back to his barracks from a port of the island where he was waiting for a ferry as he was about to take leave. He was waiting to be discharged from the mandatory military service in December. Moon was killed in his barracks.

Sgt. Ha Min-soo, Seo’s friend from the military, said in a farewell speech, “Dear friends Jeong-woo and Gwang-wuk, we hope you are reborn as guardians to protect Yeonpyeong as well as your comrades. Rest in peace my friends.”

The funeral lasted for about one hour, which wrapped up with shots fired for the dead. Their bodies were cremated and then buried at the National Cemetery in Daejeon.

The funeral for the two civilians killed in the artillery attack has yet to be held due to a disagreement on the wide gap concerning compensation between their family and the government.

In the meantime, dozens of special forces veterans scuffled with riot police in front of the Defense Ministry headquarters in Seoul, lashing out at the government’s mere token retaliation to the North.

The North fired around 170 artillery rounds Tuesday and the South’s military responded with 80 or less shells.