South Korea opposition to boycott legislature
SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea's opposition parties agreed Wednesday to boycott the new legislature to pressure embattled President Lee Myung-bak to renegotiate a much-criticized beef import deal with the United States.
Three opposition parties said in a joint statement they would indefinitely stay away from the National Assembly -- set to formally open Thursday -- unless Lee agrees to pursue a better deal to replace the April 18 agreement with Washington.
The beef pact has come under heavy fire in South Korea for more than a month amid widespread public perceptions that it fails to protect the nation from mad cow disease by allowing U.S. beef from older cattle, considered at greater risk of the brain-wasting illness.
"We sternly demand President Lee Myung-bak declare a renegotiation," the joint statement said. "We will fight together with the people until our demand is met."
The move came a day after Lee's government announced it had asked the United States to refrain from exporting any beef from cattle 30 months of age or older. Still, it stopped short of directly asking Washington for a renegotiation.
The opposition denounced the announcement as a government ploy to temporarily calm public anger, and said they would accept nothing less than outright renegotiation. About 8,000 protesters took to the streets Tuesday night to demand the agreement be redone.
The new National Assembly was elected April 9 to a four-year term. Lee's ruling Grand National Party won a majority in the elections. But the April 18 beef agreement has dramatically changed the country's political landscape, with Lee's approval ratings dropping sharply.
The ruling party denounced the boycott, but it was not clear whether it would unilaterally convene the session. Lee is scheduled to address the opening session.
The three opposition parties hold about a third of the seats in the 299-member unicameral National Assembly.
U.S. beef has been absent from South Korea for most of the past four and a half years amid a ban sparked by the first case in the U.S. of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow in late 2003.
Scientists believe the disease, formally called 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 illness is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.
