Protests turn violent as South Korea beef crisis mounts

Protests turn violent as South Korea beef crisis mounts-International Herald Tribune, June 8, 2008

SEOUL: South Korean protesters fought with the police, tried to overturn riot-control buses and smashed their windows Sunday amid a deepening political crisis over U.S. beef imports, hours after their president appealed to Washington for help in easing growing public anger.

A pledge from President George W. Bush on Saturday to address health fears over beef appeared to do little to calm the protesters' ire at President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea for agreeing to an import deal.

The violence occurred early Sunday after a crowd estimated by the police at about 40,000 rallied Saturday night in central Seoul against an April agreement that they say fails to protect against beef potentially tainted with mad cow disease.

The demonstrators attacked police riot buses lined up to barricade streets on a key central artery, throwing objects, using ladders to smash windows and trying to overturn the vehicles. Clashes ensued, with protesters hitting the police with sticks and officers striking back with riot shields. Some demonstrators were injured and taken away in ambulances. Officers also suffered injuries, and 11 protesters were detained for questioning.

The protests followed a familiar pattern - a largely peaceful main rally that turned violent as crowds thinned and the remaining protesters confronted the police.

Lee's fledgling government has been battered by daily protests over the April 18 agreement to resume U.S. beef imports - banned for most of the past four and a half years over fears of mad cow disease.

The largest crowd yet - which the police estimated at 65,000 - rallied Friday night.

Late Saturday, Lee's office said that Bush had pledged to come up with measures to ensure that beef from older cattle - considered at greater risk of mad cow disease - is not exported to South Korea. Bush made the remark during a phone call with Lee, the government said.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on South Korea's statement.

In Washington earlier, a White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said Bush had assured Lee that the U.S. government "is cooperating closely with the South Korean government and ready to support American cattle exporters as they reach a mutually acceptable solution with Korean importers on the beef trade."

Lee remains caught between a pledge to his country's most important ally and South Koreans' anger over the agreement. Protesters claim that Lee ignored their concerns about food safety and gave in to U.S. demands to help ensure passage in Congress of a bilateral free trade deal struck last year.

Both the South Korean and U.S. governments have repeatedly said that American beef is safe to eat. Protesters demand that the agreement be scrapped or renegotiated to prohibit imports of beef from cattle 30 months of age or older.

Lee said Friday that demanding a renegotiation would trigger a trade dispute with Washington that could affect South Korea's export-driven economy.

U.S. beef has been largely banned from South Korea since the first case of mad cow disease in the United States was discovered in late 2003. Two subsequent cases were found.

Scientists believe the disease spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The United States banned recycled feeds in 1997. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the illness is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.