President calls for end to US beef protest

Seoul: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday called for an end to street protests against his US beef import deal, saying they no longer have public support and it was time to get to work on the economy.

Lee's government has warned that daily street rallies that have turned increasingly violent are scaring foreign investors away. A senior Moody's official said last week protests could hamper the long-term performance of Asia's fourth largest economy.

"The government will listen to the people's voice that comes through peaceful rallies," Lee told a convention of his Grand National Party (GNP), adding that the public would not accept illegal and violent rallies.

Criticism of Lee

South Korea has seen street protests on nearly a nightly basis since early May. What began as candle-lit rallies voicing concerns about mad cow disease infection from US beef soon became a lightning rod for criticism of Lee.

"It is now time to raise the torch for economic revival," Lee said.

Veteran lawmaker Park Hee-tae, a strong political ally of Lee, was picked as GNP leader at the convention, vowing to solidify the party behind the embattled president and push parliament out of opposition-led boycott so that it can begin working on Lee's long-delayed economic reform Bills.

Demands

Protesters and opposition parties have demanded Lee scrap the deal to resume imports of US beef. As far as the South Korean and US governments are concerned, a senior government official said, "the beef issue has already been resolved."

South Korean and US trade officials in late June reworked the beef deal to mollify a South Korean public that said the government was putting its health at risk by importing the meat.

The protests have declined in scale recently, while members of left-leaning groups waged violent rallies and clashed with police, injuring scores on both sides.

The militant Korea Confederation of Trade Unions - whose members on Wednesday walked off the job, briefly halting assembly lines at major carmakers - has called for a massive street rally tomorrow, and it is planning to draw as many as a million people.

Lee, who came to office in a landslide election win in December, has seen his support plummet as the anti-US beef protests mushroomed into broader criticism of his policies