Hwang may be enshrined at national cemetery

By Park Si-soo

The late Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean defector here and key architect of North Korea’s state philosophy, is expected to be enshrined at the National Cemetery in Daejeon, according to a funeral committee member who quoted the minister of unification, Monday.

The prospect came one day after the 87-year-old Hwang was found dead in a bathtub at his home in southern Seoul, Sunday morning, from natural causes.

“The final decision will be made today at the latest. At present, the Daejoen cemetery is the most talked-about venue,” Kim Sung-min, head of Free North Korea Radio and a spokesman for the committee, told reporters, Monday.

Kim said this is what Unification Minister Hyun In-taek had told him. The minister paid tribute to the former mentor of the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

“This shows that the government is recognizing his efforts to bring the brutal dictatorship of the reclusive country into the international limelight,” Kim said. The committee, comprised of hundreds of conservatives with former President Kim Young-sam as its honorary chairman, has agreed to hold a five-day public mourning period. Hwang fled to the South during Kim’s presidency.

The government is considering awarding a state medal to Hwang, a precondition for a burial at a national cemetery.

Following his defection in 1997, Hwang became a vocal critic of the regime in the North and its dynastic succession into a third generation, drawing constant death threats from Pyongyang.

His enshrinement at the state cemetery ― which is reserved for fallen soldiers during the 1950-1953 Korean War, proven patriots and state medal awardees ― is expected to provoke the North, experts expect.

The North has condemned him with such epithets as “scum” and “betrayer” since his defection. However, no official comment from Pyongyang has been made so far.

In the meantime, police reaffirmed that no foul play was behind his death. The final results of an autopsy will be announced in three or four days according to doctors at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation.

With no state support, nearly 300 activists from 33 civic groups have been hosting Hwang’s mourning period at Seoul Asan Medical Center in Songpa-gu.

Dozens of wreaths, mostly from conservative civic groups and politicians, surrounded the homage room. Unlike funerals for high-profile figures, there was no wreath from President Lee Myung-bak.

Kim Sook-hyang, Hwang’s adopted daughter in Seoul, was the only family member present, Monday. His biological family members in the North, including his wife and children, reportedly committed suicide, were executed or sent to labor camps after his defection.

Key politicians paid tribute to the high-profile defector throughout the day.

Rep. Kim Moo-sung, floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party, said, “I will try to get the funeral moved to the state level.”

Rep. Lee Hoi-chang, who chairs the conservative opposition Liberty Forward Party, touted Hwang as a “righteous man” whose role regarding inter-Korean relations cannot be replaced.

“Any legal obstacle barring his burial at a national cemetery should be removed,” Lee said.

Special Affairs Minister Lee Jae-oh, a close aide to President Lee, paid tribute to Hwang at 11 a.m. but remained tight-lipped on the issue, despite a barrage of questions from local and foreign reporters.