Assembly Fails to Vote on FTA, Troop Bills

The National Assembly yesterday failed to vote on the controversial bills on a free trade agreement with Chile and a troop dispatch to Iraq.

The National Assembly planned to vote on the bills at night, but the plenary session was briefly suspended due to a dispute over the voting method.

Speaker Park Kwan-yong later declared that the National Assembly would reconvene a plenary session next Monday to put the FTA bill to a vote again. If ratified, the agreement would take effect within 30 days of the parliaments exchanging approval letters.

An estimated 14,000 angry protesters clashed with armed riot police as the National Assembly prepared to ratify the FTA and approve the troop dispatch plan.

More than 12,000 farmers squared off with police some 100 meters in front of the Assembly building, where protesters hurled empty bottles, stones and eggs, chanting, "No FTA."

About 9,000 riot police armed with protective gear and shields formed a barricade to keep the protesters away from the National Assembly building. Riot police buses surrounded the entire building.

Some of the farmers set fire to nearby construction materials when police mobilized water cannons to stop them from advancing any further.

Another group of some 1,500 protesters belonging to civic groups opposing an additional dispatch of troops to Iraq joined the farmers in the rally that began early in the morning.

About 10 police and farmers were injured and some farmers were detained, witnesses said.

"We oppose both the FTA and the additional dispatch of troops because the deployment threatens the Iraqi people's right to live, while the FTA threatens the survival of farmers," said Kim Hye-kyung from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

This was the third rally by furious farmers in the past two months. Their previous demonstrations delayed the FTA vote each time.

"We are willing to fight until the end because we have nothing else to hold onto," said Lee Joon-kyung, a member of the Korea Farmers' Solidarity and a local farmer who traveled from Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, to participate in the rally.

"The government says it will give us subsidies, but it is far from enough, not to mention how we cannot believe we will get the subsidies they promise."

Economic leaders and chairmen of the four main political parties agreed last week to deal with the bill this week for the sake of national credibility, which they said would be seriously hurt if the FTA bill was shelved any longer.

The Assembly is expected to face another difficult task with a vote on the dispatch of additional troops to the Middle Eastern country.

The parliamentary Defense Committee endorsed the bill but it remained shelved at the Assembly's plenary session as parties remained at odds on the issue.

The government last month submitted a plan to send a second contingent of 1,400 combat troops and 1,600 military engineers and medics to Kirkuk, some 250 kilometers north of Baghdad.

The pro-government Uri Party said the additional deployment plan must be discussed further with the government to seek ways to stem the growing public resentment toward its plan to send combat troops as part of a "peacekeeping corps."