Tearful Tribute Across Nation

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Staff Reporter

From Baengnyeong Island to Seoul and Jeju, people paid their last, tearful tribute to the 46 sailors who lost their lives in the sinking of the warship Cheonan.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, a siren sounded across the nation as mourners visited memorial altars set up in Seoul Plaza and across the country to observe a moment of silence for the victims.

More than 40,000 people have visited the memorial alter in the plaza as of late Thursday. Though the funeral ceremony was held in the morning the downtown altar remained open until the evening.

Gang Jung-sik, 65, came to the altar with his five-year-old granddaughter. "The sailors of the Cheonan frigate made a noble sacrifice for their country. I thought it would be good to have my granddaughter participate in a moment in history. I'll tell her more about the sunken Cheonan when she is older," he said.

Gang also mentioned the Coastguard which bravely saved the 58 sailors. "They are the real heroes, rescuing 58 of them out on the dark sea. They are worth being promoted by one rank," he said.

Entertainers also paid their respects to the late sailors. Actor Cha Seung-won said he could not neglect paying respect to the Cheonan sailors as a Korean, Wednesday. T.O.P of idol group Big Bang also expressed condolences. "It is heartbreaking that the sailors of my age passed away so tragically," he said. Cha and T.O.P waited for more than an hour to visit the memorial altar in Seoul Plaza.

People who couldn't visit the memorial altars in person expressed grief and participated from their homes, offices and even through Twitter.

Yi Ji-young, a 27-year-old office worker, offered a silent prayer for the Cheonan sailors at work. "I didn't have time to go to the memorial altar, but I paid respects to them in my own way," Yi said. "Though the funeral is now over, the government should determine the cause of the accident as soon as possible so the sailors can rest in peace."

In Baengnyeong Island, about 100 residents held a memorial service at the Yeonhwari coast where they can see the waters in which the ship went down. A group of marines boarded a rubber boat and went to the point the vessel sank to throw chrysanthemums onto the sea.

In Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, the city the ship was named after, some 2,000 citizens held memorial rites wishing a peaceful rest for the souls of the dead.

Korean Twitter users made a pact not to tweet for 10 minutes at 10 a.m. Thursday as a way of paying tribute. "My timeline was totally 'silent' for 10 minutes. I watched the funeral on television and I couldn't stop crying when the mother of a deceased sailor said 'I'm sorry because I love you,'" a twitter user nicknamed Cindy said.