Farmers hurled rocks and beat riot police with steel pipes and sticks near the National Assembly Tuesday after a rally opposing free trade policies ahead of this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
“We are sorting out those who will be charged and arrested,” a police officer told AFP. Those detained include suspects who set fire to police buses.
The three-hour clash left 136 people - 110 farmers and 26 police - injured, according to police. Farmers said more than 600 were hurt.
Police said the protesters burned five police buses, including two completely destroyed. Another 14 had their windows or mirrors broken or shattered.
They also burned a large painting showing US President George W. Bush thrusting a knife into a rice bag, and threatened to disrupt the APEC forum if lawmakers ratified a bill that would open South Korea’s rice market wider.
Lawmakers delayed ratifying the bill, originally due on Wednesday.
“Parliament postponed its ratification of the bill. It will not likely take place during the APEC forum,” a parliament official said.
Activists and farmers groups have said that tens of thousands of protesters will rally in Busan on Friday when Bush and other regional leaders open their two-day summit.
The farmers’ anger has been building since South Korea last year agreed to double rice imports to meet a World Trade Organization (WTO) accord that allows Seoul a grace period until 2014 before all import restrictions on rice are lifted.
The government has pledged to offer compensation to the embattled farming community, but farmers say they will step up protests if the assembly endorses the rice deal.
The WTO is running out of time to resolve talks on agriculture and other sensitive areas before a ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next month.
