Olympic flame relay in Seoul concludes

SEOUL, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic torch relay in Seoul, the 17th leg of its global journey, ended as scheduled on Sunday evening.

After a four-hour relay, last runner Yoon Tae-Woong lit the cauldron at 6:03 p.m. (0903 GMT) amid a cheering crowd waving Chinese and South Korean national flags at the City Hall Plaza.

During a grand celebrating ceremony staged after the relay, Li Binghua, vice executive president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG), Kim Jong-Kil, chairman of South Korea's Olympic Committee, and Oh Seo-Hoon, mayor of Seoul city made speeches respectively, expressing their congratulations on the success of the relay.

"I wish the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games an enormous success," said the mayor in Chinese, whose remarks were immediately greeted with thunderous applause and enthusiastic cheers from tens of thousands of spectators.

Kim, for his part, said that the process of the Olympic torch relay in Seoul was a journey of reconciliation, which observed the tradition of friendship and respect and transmitted the message of peace.

As vice executive chief of the BOCOG, Li said that the torch relay in Seoul has left a nice and deep impression on everyone.

"Beijing is ready! Welcome to Beijing!" said Li, extending a warm invitation to citizens of Seoul.

On behalf of the BOCOG, Li presented Oh with a commemorative torch of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Following the ceremony, a brilliant traditional Korean performance turned the City Hall Plaza into a sea of jubilation.

The Olympic flame, which had traveled 16 cities around the world before reaching Seoul early Sunday morning, will leave for the next stop Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea late Sunday. A torch relay is scheduled for Monday there.

The sacred flame is to reach a total of 21 cities on five continents outside the Chinese mainland before arriving in Beijing for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 8.