Thousands in South Korea mourn Moon at start of 10-day wake

GAPYEONG, South Korea (AFP) - Thousands of tearful, flower-carrying mourners descended on Thursday on the South Korean headquarters of the Unification Church to offer prayers to their late "messiah" Sun Myung Moon.

Men clad in black suits and women in white dresses flooded the church's main compound in Gapyeong, 60km east of Seoul, at the start of a 10-day wake ahead of Moon's funeral on September 15.

Moon, the self-styled messiah who founded the church famed for its mass weddings and business empire spanning cars to sushi, died Monday at the age of 92 due to complications from pneumonia.

From early morning, buses ferried mourners - including a large number of Japanese - into the sprawling, mountain-ringed Gapyeong complex where a special altar bearing a giant portrait of a youthful-looking Moon had been erected inside a cavernous, covered stadium.