Busan braces for APEC protests

Pyun Jung-won, a support official dressed in a traditional South Korean costume, is reflected yesterday in a mirror showing a display of lanterns, inside the venue where leaders from 21 countries will hold their annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. PHOTO: AFP

Large by farmers, workers and students opposed to globalization were expected to snowball here during an Asia-Pacific summit attended by US President George W. Bush.

Police that up 100,000 protesters could take to the streets on Saturday as Bush and 20 other regional leaders meet to discuss issues including reducing barriers to trade and investment.

South Korean farmers, angry at measures aimed at prising open the agricultural market to cheap foreign food imports, are expected to turn out in force, inflamed by last week's suicide of one of their activists.

Farmer Chung Yong-pum, 38, was found dead in his home village of Inam, about 100km west of here after drinking weedkiller.

Chung, head of his village and an anti free-trade activist, said in a suicide note he was distressed by the worsening plight of farmers at a time when the country was under pressure to open up its markets.

His death recalled the suicide of another Korean farmer, Lee Kyung-hae, two years ago in a similar protest at the opening of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico in 2003.

Chung's comes as South Korea's parliament ponders ratification of an accord signed last year with the US and eight other rice-exporting countries. Under the deal, Seoul promises to raise its rice import quota to 8 percent of its need by 2014 from the current four percent.

"We are angry because the government and lawmakers are pushing for the passage of the deal without any consultations with farmers who will be affected the most," Lee Young-soo, a representative of the farmer's group Korean Peasants League, was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

"Because Busan isn't far away from large farmlands in the Jeolla provinces, we expect to get over 100,000 people there if the need arises."

Some protest leaders have formed an umbrella group representing dozens of civic organizations and activist groups.

"APEC is playing the vanguard role of spreading new liberalism in trade, which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer," said O Jong-ryul, head of the People's Action against APEC, the name of the umbrella group.

In a statement, the group said APEC had become a tool for US multinationals seeking to expand their dominance in the world market "under the pretext of trade liberalization."

The group leaders also criticized Bush at a rally here for leading a "war of aggression" against Iraq. One protester, wearing a face mask and carrying a mock M-16 rifle, was bound by ropes with a sign attached reading "war criminal."

Fearing protests, South Korean police working with Interpol and other agencies have banned 1,000 foreign activists linked to anti-globalization groups from entering the country and put another 400 foreigners already here on a watch list.

Police they expected demonstrations to be large but generally peaceful.

"We do not expect any violent clashes in the streets," a spokeman said.

However, tension has mounted here since over 40,000 protesters marched against Bush at a summit of the Americas in Argentina last week. Violence erupted when several hundred demonstrators pelted police with rocks and Molotov cocktails.

A spokesman for the port city of Busan, Steve Tang, said 37,000 officers from South Korea's national intelligence service, police, military, fire service, coast guard and customs were on high alert for the summit.