Hundreds Injured in South Korean Beef Protest

SEOUL — Hundreds of protesters and police officers were injured during a violent rally against U.S. beef imports, officials said Sunday, a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged South Koreans to believe that U.S. meat was safe from mad cow disease.

The demonstrations, which coincided with the end of Rice's trip to Seoul, highlighted the shifting priorities South Koreans place in their relations with the United States.

While Rice and South Korean leaders, including President Lee Myung Bak, huddled Saturday to discuss ways of getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs, more than 18,000 people poured into central Seoul to demand that the two governments discuss something else: renegotiating a beef import deal.

On Sunday evening, the government sealed off major rallying points in central Seoul by adding police officers, establishing blockades with buses and rerouting car traffic. Groups of several hundred people held separate protests, some marching and engaging in shoving matches with the police.

Source: International Herald Tribune