(AP) - SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korean workers took to the streets of the capital Saturday, demanding that a just-concluded free trade agreement between their country and the United States be scrapped.
About 5,000 people blocked off a busy street near a major university in Seoul, shouting slogans against the free trade deal they say will cost South Korean jobs, according to a police estimate.
On Monday, the U.S. and South Korea wrapped up 10 months of often tense negotiations, overcoming differences in key sectors including automobiles and agriculture to clinch the biggest such deal for Washington since the North American Free Trade Agreement more than a decade ago.
It is also the biggest ever such accord for South Korea, the world's 10th-largest economy and home to global corporations such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co.
'We cannot recognize or acknowledge this unjust deal and so we are calling for its full nullification,' said Heo Young-koo, vice president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized the rally. 'And we'll struggle to that effect.'
The 800,000-member strong KCTU is one of two major umbrella labor organizations in South Korea and generally considered more militant than the rival Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
Heo said his organization planned to conduct an education campaign for workers and farmers over the next two months to raise awareness of the agreement before the two governments sign it.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush, both of whom strongly backed the deal, are expected to sign it by the end of June, though final approval depends on votes in the U.S. Congress and South Korea's National Assembly.
The deal cuts or eliminates tariffs and other trade barriers in a wide range of sectors including industry, agriculture, finance and medicine.
South Korea's politically sensitive rice market, however, was kept out of the agreement, amid intense lobbying from farmers.
Labor, farm, student and social activist groups loudly protested throughout the 10 months the deal was under negotiation. The largest protest came in July, when about 25,000 people rallied in central Seoul amid a monsoon downpour.
Some rallies resulted in clashes with riot police. Last Sunday, the penultimate day of the negotiations, a protester set himself on fire outside the hilltop Seoul hotel where officials were meeting, resulting in third-degree burns over his body.
Despite the protests, a newspaper poll taken after the agreement was concluded found that a majority of South Koreans welcomed the deal.
A total of 58.5 percent favored deal, while 30 percent were opposed, according to the mass circulation Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest newspaper.
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