A Flood of Condolences After Virginia Tech Massacre

After it was revealed that the perpetrator of the campus shooting massacre at Virginia Tech was Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old Korean student, many people are expressing their grief and condolences to the victims.

On April 18, one day after the massacre, some netizens took the lead in suggesting that a candlelight rally should be held to express Korean condolences to the bereaved families of the victims and American people.

On an Internet portal site, a netizen created an online forum titled, "Mourning over the Shooting Massacre." As of the afternoon of April 18, over 9,000 people have prayed for the repose of the victims in their postings with a black ribbon icon with the word "condolences" on them.

In a posting on his blog, "The sad story of Virginia Tech: Maybe we should hold a candlelight ceremony," Jo Chang-hoon said, "I believe we should hold a candlelight ceremony at a national level to express our grief at the death of the victims. For the person who shot and those who got shot to death, we should placate the unfortunate souls of those dead."

One netizen created a condolence video clip with photos from the massacre played over the music and the message, "Now is the time for us to stand by Korean residents there and express our regret and grief over the tragedy to the bereaved families of the victims."

Reading news articles on the bloody shooting, many netizens added a black ribbon icon to their replies, and many of them were seen titling their postings, "May the victims rest in peace," regardless of what their postings were about.

A netizen using the nickname, "RB Captain," wrote on his blog, "[The incident] is very deplorable. Take to Seoul City Hall Square, young Koreans. Raise your candles with your sincere condolences to the victims. The whole world is watching Korea."

Many other netizens expressed their opinions, such as, "We should hold a condolence gathering for the innocent victims," and "For Korean residents in the U.S., maybe we in Korea should create a condolence website to pray for the souls of the victims."

Some of them posted real-time video clips of the condolence ceremony held at Virginia Tech to show how America grieved over the death of the victims.

Members of conservative groups such as Right Korea and the Citizens` Coalition for Stopping the Nuclear Development of North Korea gathered in Seoul City Hall Square at 7:00 p.m. to hold a candlelight rally for mourning the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting massacre.

creating@donga.com