Anchor: The five-day funeral proceedings for late Seoul City Mayor Park Won-soon came to a close on Monday, with a service at his workplace for the past nine years. Park's funeral, however, has fueled controversy as he was facing sexual harassment allegations just before his death.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: [Nat sound: Funeral for Late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon (Jul. 13)]

Late Seoul City Mayor Park Won-soon, who died last Thursday in an apparent suicide halfway through his third term in office, made one final visit to City Hall.

Only about 100 people, including Park's family, members of the ruling Democratic Party(DP) and Seoul city government officials, attended Monday's funeral, though it was broadcast online in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DP Chair Lee Hae-chan, one of the funeral committee chairs, said Park was a passionate, genuine person who never gave up or compromised as a human rights lawyer and a civic activist.

An apparent reference to Park's sudden death following sexual harassment accusations, Paik Nak-chung, professor emeritus at Seoul National University, said assessment of the late mayor should take place after the mourning period.

According to the city government, over 20-thousand-300 people visited the memorial altar in front of City Hall during the weekend, and one million expressed condolences on the city government website as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

This is in contrast to 565-thousand, as of 2:00 p.m. Monday, who signed a petition on the presidential office website, protesting the five-day funeral for Park, who was accused of sexual harassment by his former secretary just before his death.

A Seoul court denied a motion for an injunction on the funeral filed by over 200 citizens.

As he had asked in his will, Park's body was cremated and the ashes are to be buried in his hometown of Changnyeong in South Gyeongsang Province.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.