Truckers join with beef protests

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-14  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THOUSANDS of South Koreans kept up their protests yesterday against the government's plan to resume United States beef imports, while the country's trade minister departed for Washington in an attempt to placate demonstrators' demands.

Meanwhile, truckers went on strike to protest rising fuel prices in a fresh challenge for President Lee Myung-bak's young government.

In the latest of the anti-government rallies that have echoed through the streets of the capital for more than a month, about 10,000 demonstrators gathered yesterday in front of Seoul's City Hall, police said. Many carried candles at the protest, which coincided with the anniversary of the deaths of two schoolgirls in a 2002 accident with a US military vehicle.

The event became a flashpoint for anti-American protests stoked by liberal politicians in an election year, helping them maintain the presidency by promising not to kowtow to Washington.

Lee's agreement to resume US beef imports in April just before a summit with US President George W. Bush was viewed by critics as caving in to American demands, stoking Korea's strong nationalist pride and claims that he failed to seek public consensus about health concerns.

"I think South Korea is a colony of the United States," said Shin Jung-ah, a third-year high school student.

Other banners read, "Punish US murderer soldiers," and called for changes to the agreement governing the American forces' presence in South Korea. Some 28,500 US troops remain deployed in the South as a legacy of the Korean War, which ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.

The latest protest was far smaller than a gathering earlier in the week that drew some 80,000 people where police blocked roads to prevent the crowds from marching to the presidential Blue House.