Riot police used water cannons to disperse protesters outside South Korea’s national assembly yesterday amid a deepening political standoff over the ruling conservatives’ final push to seal a trade deal with the US.
About 2,000 people rallied outside parliament where members of a small far-left party have barricaded themselves in a committee meeting room to block a debate on a bill which would clear the way for final approval of the free-trade agreement (FTA).
The FTA, which some studies say could boost the US$67 billion two-way trade between the allies by as much as 25 percent, was approved by the US Congress last month and signed into law by US President Barack Obama.
Photo: Reuters
It had been expected to sail through the South Korean -parliament where the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) has a majority, but the opposition, buoyed by a landslide victory in a key by-election in the capital last week, has flexed its muscle and demanded changes to the deal, saying it is skewed in Washington’s favor.
A GNP deadline to ratify the pact passed on Tuesday.
Opposition lawmakers have stalled proceedings on the pact this week. They succeeded in blocking it again yesterday.
The conservative GNP, which has a comfortable majority in parliament, has been reluctant to push the bill through, wary of risking political damage before key elections next year where they could lose control of both the assembly and the executive branch.
The GNP’s leadership is also worried that forcing the pact through parliament could spark trouble in the main chamber.
Physical violence among lawmakers in recent years has included incidents of chair-throwing and fighting, prompting opposition and ruling parties last year to agree not to resort to violence.
The GNP has criticized the main opposition Democratic Party for trying to block a deal that was negotiated and signed when it was in power in 2007.
Democratic Party leader Sohn Hak-kyu pledged yesterday that the opposition would not back down until the bill is revised to fix an imbalance of national interests created when it was reworked last year to address US automaker concerns.
“If the government tries to force the free-trade bill through, we will fight to block it to the end,” Sohn said.
Despite charges that it gives the US auto industry a major inroad into the South Korean market, domestic car makers stand to gain from greater access to the US.
US farmers are also expected to be big winners under the agreement, with more than US$1.8 billion a year in increased exports to South Korea.
The deal is the biggest US trade pact since the North America FTA went into force in 1994.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS