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Phnom Penh, a city filled with tears

Posted June. 29, 2007 03:53,   

한국어

“She was such a good girl. How could you take my daughter away from me? It must have been frightening being alone in the deep jungle.” Her last hope of her daughter being found alive was finally shattered. Seo Mahn-suk, the mother of the late Lee Myeong-ok, a passenger on the plane that crashed en route to Cambodia, fainted after crying out in sorrow while holding a picture of her daughter.

The 13 Koreans who left for Cambodia looking forward to exciting holiday adventures, returned to their families in coffins.

Family members were remarkably calm, right up to when they got off the bus which arrived at the Calmet Hospital in downtown Phnom Penh. They seemed to believe that they were living a nightmare that would be over when they woke up. However, as soon as they saw the pictures of their loved ones after entering the place where the bodies were being held, the shocking reality of the situation dawned on them and many broke down in tears.

Park Jeong-suk, who lost her son, Cho Jong-ok, a journalist at KBS, her daughter-in-law Yun Hyeon-suk, and even her two grandsons, all at once, held pictures of them and burst into tears. She held her grandson Yun-hu – the only family member left behind – and could barely finish her sentence. “What if only one of his parents were still alive…,” she cried.

Yun Chang-do, father of the late Yun Hyeon-suk, hung his head while holding back the tears, “I still can picture vividly her happy face when I saw her off at the airport,” he said. Park Jun-hwan, younger brother of the late tour guide, Park Jin-wan, sobbed uncontrollably. “My brother felt sorry for always asking me for help but now I feel sorrier that I had to let him go like this,” said Park.

From 2:20 p.m., only those family members who wished to do so could view the bodies of their loved ones. Lee Chung-ho, a representative of the survivors, saw the body of his older brother Lee Chung-won and said to other survivors that his brother’s body was barely recognizable.

With family members, local residents, and embassy staff attending and Rev. Seo Byeong-do, of the Jeil Church in Phnom Penh, presiding, a mourning ceremony was held for the victims at 5:00 p.m. at the place where the bodies were being held. Family members will return to Korea by Korean Air at 11:20 p.m., June 29, with the bodies of the victims.

From the morning of June 28, government officials including Shin Hyeon-seok, Korean ambassador to Cambodia and Oh Gap-yeol, ambassador for Koreans abroad, as well as local residents, showed up to express their condolences. Several Cambodian high-ranking officials, including senior minister Nhim Vanda and senior minister Lituk, also visited the site to pay their condolences.

Meanwhile, the alleged rumor that two additional Korean passengers were scheduled to be on board, turned out to be false. It has been identified that the tourists who met the victims before the crash happened said, “We might have been in an accident as well if we had taken that plane.” This was, however, proven to have been misreported.



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