Prime Minister Attends Ceremony
This is actually quite incredible, the Korean Prime Minister has attended the memorial yesterday of the six sailors murdered by the North Koreans during the West Sea Naval Battle five years ago:
Navy sailors who survived a sea battle with North Korea’s navy on June 29, 2002 pay tribute yesterday at a memorial service in Pyeongtaek, South Chungcheong, to six fellow sailors who died. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo attended, the most senior government official ever to do so at the annual event.
President Roh is still missing in action of course, but I do have to give recognition to Prime Minister Han for attending the ceremony. He is fairly new to the job having taken over the Prime Minister job just three months ago. Before that he was a finance minister. It is good to see that at least one person in the ruling government has not forgotten the six sailors who were murdered while serving their country.
Someone must have read your blog post and tipped him off that he should probably attend.
According to Korean news broadcasts, the ROK Navy launched a new class of patrol boat on the anniversary of the 2002 battle. The first boat is named after a Lieutentant Commander killed in that battle.
The ROK Navy named a boat last year as well after one of the casualties of the attack:
http://rokdrop.com/2006/05/14/remembering-major-y…
The ROK Navy has been very good about remembering and honoring the deceased sailors while the Korean government has been an absolute disgrace in their handling of this pre-meditated murder.