Hundreds in Seoul protest U.S. beef

South Korean farmers protest against the resumption of U.S. beef imports last week in Seoul.

Riot police beat and arrested several protesters early Monday during an illegal rally by hundreds of opponents of a beef import agreement with the United States that has raised fears of mad cow disease in South Korea.

Several protesters were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. A policeman "shoved me and slammed his shield into my right side, and the pain is killing me," Cho Ik-bi, a 36-year-old businessman, told The Associated Press as he was taken to an ambulance.

Police detained 31 people for questioning, a police officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters and declined to comment on the police violence.

Thousands of South Koreans have held candlelight vigils and other protests against the April 18 deal to resume U.S. beef imports. They say the government of President Lee Myung-bak made too many concessions in the accord and that it does not include strict enough quarantine restrictions to protect against mad cow disease.

The protest movement is among the biggest domestic challenges faced by Lee in his first months in office.

On Sunday, police detained 37 other protesters at a separate rally urging the government to scrap the import deal.

Lee last week sought to reassure the country on the safety of U.S. beef but failed to ease public anger, fanned in part by media reports questioning the safety of the meat.

Lee has been criticized for making too many concessions on the beef issue to get the U.S. Congress to approve a free trade agreement. South Korea and the U.S. agreed to the landmark accord last year to slash tariffs and other trade barriers, but the deal must be endorsed by legislatures in both capitals before it takes effect.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo called on South Korea's legislature Monday to ratify the deal before its term ends this week.

Some 700 protesters marched through the capital until the early hours of the morning. Some of them called for Lee's impeachment, saying he was sacrificing public safety for political gain.

The April 18 agreement scrapped nearly all the quarantine restrictions imposed by the previous government to guard against mad cow disease.

The South Korean government was preparing to make an announcement on revised quarantine restrictions and the safety of American beef imports as early as Tuesday, clearing the way to put it back on Korean store shelves.

A government delegation was to return home later Monday after conducting on-site inspections of beef industry facilities in the U.S., said Kim Hyun-soo, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman. He did not give further details.

South Korea suspended U.S. beef imports after the first American case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state.

Restricted imports of U.S. beef reached South Korean supermarkets last year, but further shipments were canceled in October after banned parts, such as bones, were found.

Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle with recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady, is linked to eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease.