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PYONGTAEK, South Korea: Flags flew at half-mast, a siren wailed and families wept on Thursday as South Korea honoured 46 sailors killed in a mystery warship blast, amid growing suspicion that North Korea was to blame.
"We'll never forgive whoever inflicted this great pain on us," navy chief Kim Sung-Chan told a mass funeral for the victims of one of the country's worst naval disasters.
"We will track them down to the end and we will, by all means, make them pay for this."
Hundreds of thousands have this week visited flower-decked altars set up nationwide in memory of those killed when the 1,200-tonne corvette was ripped apart near the disputed inter-Korean border on March 26.
Investigators studying the two salvaged halves of the Cheonan say an external blast hit the ship underwater.
The defence minister has said a heavy torpedo was among the likeliest causes, although Seoul has not openly blamed Pyongyang pending the outcome of a multinational probe by more than 100 investigators.
The communist North has denied involvement.
Some 1,500 to 2,000 guests including bereaved relatives, government and military officials, ambassadors and foreign delegations attended the funeral at a naval base at Pyongtaek 70 kilometres (44 miles) south of Seoul.
President Lee Myung-Bak laid posthumous medals in front of portraits of the dead as their names were read out.
Buddhist and Christian funeral rites were performed before weeping families laid chrysanthemums, a traditional mourning flower, before the portraits. One grief-stricken elderly woman collapsed and had to be helped to her feet.
A visibly moved Lee and First Lady Kim Yoon-Ok also laid chrysanthemums and burnt incense to honour the dead, bowing before the portraits. A succession of top military and government officials followed suit.
Survivors of the blast marched past the mourners carrying portraits of the dead. Some 3,000 black and white balloons -- symbolising the colours of a naval uniform -- were released into the chilly wind.
Mourners gathered across the country, some observing a moment of silence.
"I prayed that they rest in peace in a good place," said Shin Uk-Cheol, 66, at an altar outside Seoul's City Hall. "They died sacrificing themselves for the nation."
Searchers are scouring the bed of the murky Yellow Sea for any remnants that could confirm an attack on the Cheonan.
South Korea is weighing its options for a response in case hard evidence emerges of the North's involvement. The border was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, and of a firefight last November which set a North Korean patrol boat ablaze.
An unidentified official has told Yonhap news agency that Seoul has not ruled out a military response if North Korea is found responsible, but it would likely take the case to the United Nations Security Council.
South Korea will brief permanent Council members China and Russia on the outcome of its probe, the official said.
South Korean and US officials have indicated that six-nation nuclear disarmament talks cannot resume while the sinking remains a mystery.
After the funeral service, the bodies of the dead were being taken to the Daejeon National Cemetery further south.
The bodies of six sailors remain unrecovered. Their families burned naval uniforms, personal belongings or fingernail or hair clippings at a cremation cemetery Wednesday, the JoongAng Daily reported.
Sailors on sea duty leave nail or hair clippings to be returned to families in case they are lost at sea. - AFP/fa
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