Seoul mayor Park Won-soon's funeral held

The funeral service for Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, who took his own life, was held on Monday (Jul 13) despite a petition against the city-run ceremony signed by half a million people.

Former human rights lawyer Park was a heavyweight figure in the ruling Democratic party and ran South Korea's sprawling capital - home to almost a fifth of the national population - for nearly a decade.

He was found dead on a mountain on Friday.

Despite the controversy over his death, the Seoul City government organised a five-day funeral for Park - two days longer than the normal Korean ritual, which begins on the day of death - and set up a memorial altar outside City Hall.

More than 20,000 people came to pay their respects during the mourning period, and at the service on Monday his daughter said: "I could feel my father's joy as I met the citizens one by one."

But an online petition on the presidential website opposing the ceremony garnered more than 500,000 signatures.

President Moon Jae-in sent flowers to the funeral and his chief of staff attended personally, as did other senior officials of the centre-left Democratic party.