S. Korean gov't to decide ex-president Kim's funeral Wednesday

SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government will likely make an arrangement of late former President Kim Dae-jung's funeral on Wednesday, fixing its date and format, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said on Tuesday.

"The government plans to decide the format of the funeral as early as on Wednesday at a Cabinet meeting," an official at the Ministry of Public Administration and Security was quoted as saying after a meeting of relevant ministers.

According to officials, the government has been closely consulting with Kim's bereaved family on how to hold Kim's funeral.

Under a related law, a former president is given a "state funeral," which will have a nine-day mourning period fully sponsored by the government, or a "people's funeral," whose mourning period lasts seven days with the government paying only part of the related cost.

In May, late president Roh, who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, was paid a people's funeral, while the funeral of President Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated in 1979, was held as a state one.

President Lee Myung-bak, upon receiving the message of Kim's death, called him "a great political leader," and made an order to make full preparations for the funeral.