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(LEAD) Three-day protest against U.S. beef concluded
SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- Thousands of protesters on Saturday ended a three-day demonstration to denounce the government's deal to fully open the local market to U.S. beef.
Police said about 3,000 protesters who tried repeatedly to march to the presidential office started to disband early in the morning with only sporadic rallies taking place near Sejongno, Seoul's main thoroughfare, until 7 a.m.
Law enforcement officials estimated that 56,000 protesters took part in the last night of a 72-hour anti-U.S. beef demonstration that began Thursday. Organizers of the demonstration claimed up to 200,000 showed up to express their displeasure over the government's handling of the U.S. beef issue. Police reported several riot policemen and protesters were taken to hospitals after being injured in minor clashes.
"Most of the protesters went home during the night," said a police officer, adding that five people who were detained are being questioned on suspicion of using violence and trying to remove barricades set up to prevent people from marching on the presidential office.
The police said as of Saturday, 548 people have been detained in connection to the protest marches and 56 were charged with breaking the country's demonstration laws.
There have been daily street marches and demonstrations since May 24, following more peaceful candlelight vigils held in the capital city since South Korea and the United States agreed on new import rules for U.S. beef on April 18.
The deal permits most beef cuts to be imported without limits on the age of the butchered cattle as long as specified risk materials are properly removed.
If the pact is posted on the government gazette, it will replace an agreement reached in January 2006 that only permitted imports of boneless U.S. beef from cattle under 30 months old.
On Tuesday, the agriculture minister formally announced that South Korea will delay posting of the import pact on the gazette and asked Washington not to export beef from animals over 30 months of age. The move effectively maintained the ban on quarantine inspections that has been in place since October.
Policymakers said the action is designed to allay public concerns about beef safety and buy time to find a compromise on the impasse, which has caused President Lee Myung-bak's approval ratings to dip to as low as 16 percent in some polls.
The 30-month limit is important because younger cows are believed less likely to contract bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly called mad cow disease.
BSE is a brain-wasting illness that can cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) among people who eat tainted beef. There have been 207 deaths attributed to vCJD worldwide as of last year and 180,000 confirmed cases of BSE among cattle, with most scientists estimating up to a million animals may have caught the disease.
The government's plan centers on ways to effectively prohibit the import of beef from cattle over 30 months old by voluntary restraint measures by U.S. meat exporters and local importers.
Meanwhile, civic groups, which are leading the campaign to halt U.S. beef imports, said students at 30 universities are planning to boycott classes on Tuesday to join the nationwide demonstrations. The progressive Korea Confederation of Trade Unions has called for a walkout by its members from Tuesday through Saturday, with general strikes planned for after Sunday pending a vote by its unionists.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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