South Korean protestors plan to continue their candlelight rallies despite Seoul's additional deal with Washington on beef safeguards.
"The additional deal, which fails to ensure the health of the Korean people, was only deceptive," Yonhap News reported Sunday, quoting a civic coalition, the People's Association Against Mad Cow Disease, as saying in a statement.
About 10,000 people staged protests in downtown Seoul Saturday night, calling for a renegotiation with the United States to impose tougher quarantine rules.
The overnight rallies turned violent in the predawn hours, as protestors scuffled with police who used a barricade of police buses to block them from marching toward the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae.
Yonhap said demonstrators tied ropes to one of the buses in an attempt to get through the barricade, and some protestors flattened the tires of police buses. Two people were taken to hospitals, witnesses said.
In mid-April, South Korea agreed to import American beef from cattle of all ages, lifting a five-year-old ban that was imposed after a case of mad cow disease was found in the United States. The agreement angered many Koreans concerned about the safety of American beef, and daily public protests led the Seoul government to seek an age limit as a precaution against mad cow disease.
Following weeklong negotiations in Washington, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon announced Saturday that U.S. beef from cattle older than 30 months will not introduced into South Korea