Thousands rally over US beef imports in Korea

Seoul: Tens of thousands of South Koreans rallied on Saturday against a plan to import US beef in the largest protest in weeks of anti-government demonstrations.

A crowd estimated by police at 30,000 people filled a plaza in front of city hall for an evening rally.

Protesters waved placards and chanted slogans criticising President Lee Myung-bak.

South Korea agreed in April to reopen what was formerly the third-largest overseas market for US beef. It had been shut for most of the past 4 1/2 years following the first US case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state in 2003.

That deal, coupled with some sensational media reports, sparked fears of mad cow disease and triggered weeks of near-daily street protests calling for scrapping and renegotiating the agreement.

The rally was far larger than previous ones, which have reached about 10,000 people.

Anger has intensified since Thursday, when the government announced it would implement the April 18 agreement with Washington and resume beef imports within days despite widespread public opposition.

Earlier on Saturday, about a dozen farmers in traditional funeral clothes marched on a downtown street on the way to the protest site, carrying signs with anti-government slogans along with the severed head of a cow.

Police said they deployed about 11,000 riot police to protest sites in the capital to guard against possible violence.