Online funeral planned for Seoul mayor due to Covid-19 concerns
The official funeral for Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon will be held online due to Covid-19 concerns, his funeral committee said.
The announcement comes amid a heated social debate over how big a funeral should be for Park, 64, who was reportedly involved in sexual harassment allegations.
Lawmaker Park Hong-keun, who works for the interim funeral committee, said that the online funeral will be held inside Seoul City Hall on Monday, adding that the committee aimed to support a government-led anti-virus campaign and hold a “humble” funeral.
About 100 people, including the bereaved family, are expected to attend the funeral, which will be broadcast live on YouTube and will include silent tributes, the laying of flowers, clips featuring the mayor and commemorative speeches.
Park Hong-keun said that as of 1am Sunday, around 18,000 people had paid their respects to the mayor at two mourning sites in Seoul, one at a hospital and the other at a plaza near City Hall. About 922,000 people had condoled the mayor’s death at a cityrun online mourning site as of Sunday afternoon.
While his death has caused an outpouring of sympathy, many South Koreans have demanded that authorities investigate the allegations against Park and voiced opposition to a large-scale funeral paid for with taxpayer money.
A petition filed with the presidential office opposing such a funeral had garnered more than 535,000 signatures as of Sunday afternoon.
“Holding a quiet family funeral should be proper,” the petition said.
Seoul city officials said Monday’s online funeral would be an official event paid for with city funds.
Police said there was no sign of homicide when Park’s body was discovered but have refused to disclose the exact cause of death.
Seoul officials that what they described as Park’s “will” was found at his residence.
Police launched massive searches for Park after his daughter called police and reported him missing.
While searches were underway, South Korean media reported that one of Park’s secretaries had earlier lodged a complaint with police over alleged sexual harassment.
Police later confirmed that a complaint had been filed but refused to provide further details, including whether the complaint was about sexual behavior.