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SEOUL : Some 20,000 protesters took to the streets in Seoul on Saturday, urging the government to call off its decision to resume US beef imports in the coming week, witnesses said.
Carrying candles and waving banners, they rallied outside the City Hall in the centre of the capital, demanding the nullification of a recent deal with Washington under which South Korea lifted a ban on the imports on Thursday.
They carried placards demanding the resignation of President Lee Myung-Bak, who took office in February, and shouted "nullify the beef deal!".
Thousands of riot police were on alert nearby but the rally was largely peaceful.
Yonhap news agency said Saturday's demonstration was the largest since mass candlelit protests began a week earlier in Seoul and several other cities across the country to protest against the move.
The demonstrations intensified as Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-Chun on Thursday unveiled new rules on imports and for the inspection of US beef, which was expected to go on sale here in the week ahead.
The resumption of beef imports was a pre-condition for Washington's approval of a free trade agreement with South Korea, which some analysts say could boost annual trade between the two nations by 20 billion dollars.
Seoul agreed in April to lift its intermittent ban on US beef imports, which was first imposed in December 2003 amid a mad cow disease scare.
But the opposition claims the government has not secured safeguards against the alleged dangers posed by the human form of the disease.
However, South Korea's parliament failed to ratify the free trade deal before the legislature's four-year term expired on Thursday. - AFP/de
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