Thousands Protest U.S. Beef In S. Korea

Police clashed with elements of a crowd estimated at nearly 40,000 who protested into early Sunday in downtown Seoul against South Korean government plans to import U.S. beef.

Water cannons were fired at some of the protesters who were blocked by police buses from a road leading to the presidential Blue House, prompting angry reaction from demonstrators.

Several protesters injured by the water cannon were taken to hospital.

A crowd estimated by police at 38,000 people filled a plaza in front of city hall. Protesters lit candles, waved placards and chanted slogans criticizing President Lee Myung-bak.

The rally was largely peaceful, with most protesters dispersing voluntarily. But sporadic clashes between some protesters and police continued into the early hours of Sunday.

South Korea agreed in April to reopen what was formerly the third-largest overseas market for U.S. beef. It had been shut most of the past 4 1/2 years following the first U.S. 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 protests calling for scrapping or renegotiating the agreement.

Students, labor union members, office workers were among those who filled the plaza, which was surrounded by special buses used by riot police.

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.

Rallies in recent days have ended with protesters marching through downtown streets, where some scuffles with police have resulted. Police said they deployed about 11,000 personnel to protest sites in the capital Saturday to guard against possible violence.

The beef issue has emerged as the biggest domestic challenge for Lee's fledgling administration. The former construction industry chief executive took office Feb. 25 on a vow to boost the economy and is approaching his 100th day in office.

Though his margin of victory in December's election was the largest ever in South Korea, his handling of the beef agreement has seen his popularity plummet to levels near 20 percent.

The timing of the deal - just hours before a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush at his Camp David retreat - struck a particularly raw nerve.

Protesters claim Lee was too quick to concede to U.S. demands for access to South Korea's market to win favor with Washington and garner support in Congress for ratification of a separate free trade agreement.

Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The U.S. banned recycled feeds in 1997.

In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.