World

SKorean Lawmaker Unleashes Tear Gas on Opponents in National Assembly

South Korean Lawmaker Uses Tear Gas on Opponents

Rep. Kim Seon-dong, bottom, of the opposition Democratic Labor Party, explodes tear gas in front of the speaker's chair to block National Assembly Vice Speaker Chung Eui-hwa, center, from pushing for the procedure to handle a pending bill on ratification of a South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011. (Photo: AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s ruling party forced a long-stalled free trade deal with the United States through parliament Tuesday, enraging opposition lawmakers who blasted their political rivals with tear gas.

South Korean lawmakers voted 151 to 7 in favor of ratifying the landmark trade agreement in a surprise legislative session called by the ruling Grand National Party, parliamentary officials said.

Shouts and screams filled the National Assembly as ruling party lawmakers forced their way onto the parliamentary floor. Amid the scuffling, one opposition lawmaker doused rivals with tear gas.

Security guards hustled him out of the chamber as he shouted and tried to resist. Outside the National Assembly building, opponents of the deal scuffled with police mobilized to maintain order.

The pact is America’s biggest free-trade agreement since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Two-way trade between the United States and South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, totaled about $90 billion last year, according to the South Korean government.

After the deal was approved less than an hour after the tussle began, dozens of opposition lawmakers and aides – who fought hard to prevent passage of an agreement they say favors U.S. over South Korean workers – sat slumped around the chamber podium. One legislator leaned her head against the shoulder of another as they both stared at the floor in silence.

Such chaotic scenes are not uncommon in South Korea’s parliament, where rival parties have a history of resorting to physical confrontation over highly charged issues. In 2008, opposition lawmakers used a sledgehammer to try and force their way into a barricaded committee room to stop the ruling party from introducing a debate on the U.S. trade deal.

President Lee Myung-bak‘s ruling party commands a majority in South Korea’s single-chamber, 295-seat parliament but hadn’t forced the deal through earlier, apparently out of worry over a public backlash ahead of next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

The presidential Blue House welcomed the deal’s passage, pledging in a statement to use it as a chance to boost the economy and create jobs. The main opposition Democratic Party said it would boycott all other parliamentary sessions in protest and demanded that top ruling party leaders resign.

Lawmakers have been wrangling over ratification of the free trade deal since U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama approved the deal last month after years of divisive debate in the U.S.

A key sticking point was a provision that opponents say would allow investors to take disputes falling under the agreement’s jurisdiction to a U.S.-influenced international arbitration panel. The opposition calls for removal of the provision.

President Lee offered to seek re-negotiation of the provision if the opponents in parliament vote for ratification. The Democratic Party, however, rebuffed Lee’s proposal, saying negotiations should take place first.

Debate over the deal has been heated, with nearly daily protests outside the National Assembly and opposition lawmakers camping out in a committee room for weeks to block the vote.

Earlier this month, South Korean police fired water cannons to disperse more than 2,000 protesters trying to break into the National Assembly during a debate.

There were concerns the demonstrations might mirror those in 2008, when South Korea’s move to lift a ban on U.S. beef triggered weeks of massive street protests over worries about the meat’s safety and criticism that Seoul had made too many concessions to Washington.

Economist Jung Tae-in said the trade deal would widen the gap between haves and have-nots. “South Korea will falter in the early stages of the implementation of the deal because the United States is economically more powerful,” he said.

But Kim Jung-sik, an economics professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, said fears about damage to South Korea’s economy are overblown. “Free trade still works to South Korea’s advantage because the country is so reliant on exports.”

South Korea, a major exporter of industrial goods such as automobiles and consumer electronics, has aggressively sought free trade agreements and already has several in effect, including with Chile, India, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement Tuesday that it will work to get the trade deal to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012.

–

Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this report.

Comments (27)

  • bkfirvine
    Posted on November 25, 2011 at 6:02am

    Rep. Kim Seon-dong is a “wild ‘n crazy kinda guy”!

    Report Post » bkfirvine  
  • ONE PIECE
    Posted on November 23, 2011 at 7:52pm

    So they have no problems to have the U.S spending billions in defenses & man power for their benefit but as soon as they FEEL like they‘re not getting a good deal they say that we’re being unfair. I think that maybe it’s time that we take our people home & let the north take it over. Maybe then they will think that it’s fair for their people!!!!

    Report Post » ONE PIECE  
  • UrbanCombatSurvivor
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 10:50pm

    One more successful step towards Globalizing our Laws by the Obama scam machine.

    Report Post »  
  • thegodfather
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 12:50pm

    Great….More ideas for democrats in congress.

    Report Post » thegodfather  
  • MNH@wk
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 12:43pm

    Once I researched a little (no thanks to this article) I was shocked, SHOCKED, to find out it was a leftist piece of garbage that instigated this.

    “chaotic scenes” “rival parties” “opposition lawmakers”

    Good grief, Blaze, I don‘t think I’ve even seen the New York Times come up with as many euphemisms to avoid properly identifying the ideology that instigated violence.

    It’s not hard. I‘ll show you guys how it’s done.

    The right is in power, in South Korea. The left is in opposition. The left is who instigated this violence.

    See, it’s not hard, properly identifying the parties involved.

    Report Post »  
    • CowboyExpat
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 9:44pm

      The left is staunchly anti-US. They can put 20,000 people in the central square in Seoul to protest the import of US beef….and say nothing about their own industry poisoning their children by counterfeiting their food. …and just so you don’t have to wonder what I said….왼쪽 staunchly 안티 – US입니다. 그들은 미국 쇠고기의 수입을 항의 …. 자신의 산업이 위조하여 음식을 자신의 아이를 중독에 대해 아무말도 서울에있는 중앙 광장에서 2만명를 넣을 수 있습니다.

      Report Post » CowboyExpat  
  • storm8ring3r
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 10:32am

    who knew a liberal would be capable of such a thing. I love south korea, I love samsung. Good to see they have conservatives in power who are pro free-trade. Also, these people are good at starcraft.

    Report Post »  
  • mikenleeds
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 10:17am

    i see they have low-file democrats too

    Report Post » mikenleeds  
  • texasfarmer
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 10:03am

    Democratic Labor Party, different stripes same animal.

    Report Post » texasfarmer  
  • gdbhusker
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 9:29am

    HEY……I have an idea…….lets remove our base from south Korea……they hate us, the students protest us, lets get them out of there!!!!! The way I see it, all these nations hate the US being on their soil, and we cannot afford to be there anyway. Lets end free trade with South Korea, close our base, bring our troops home, quit selling them our military equipment, and see how long before they are bowing to his highness Kim Jong Ill…….UNDISPUTED KING OF KOREA!!!!!!!!! when we meddle in the world and force ourselves on people..this is the general reaction…. call me an isolationist, but I could care less anymore about the rest of the world… globalism started this whole nasty mess in the first place….people should mind their own damn business, or at least clean up their porch before sitting on someone else’s and complaining about the filth!!!!

    Report Post » gdbhusker  
  • SBR308
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 9:19am

    Some pickled eggs and beer would of cleared the room better than that.

    Report Post »  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:54am

    Too bad our lawmakers couldn’t have done this during the Obamacare vote.

    Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • Eliasim
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:44am

    I wonder why the guy was against it. South Korea like every other nation in previous agreement will pick and choose what to recognize, and the losing end will be the American worker as jobs go to South Korea, but the bankers invested in the companies using cheap labor in South Korea will live in secure coastal regions while they are protected by the U.S military robots.

    Report Post »  
  • bigfatslob
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:36am

    Labor/liberal/democrats are the same all over. Union thugs blocking parliment are the same as ours. Wake up free world.

    Report Post » bigfatslob  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:46am

      What are you talking about? Both sides are crooks, and they both slam workers and the Traditional American way of life.

      Report Post »  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:50am

      That’s why God is going to tear their stinking rotten system down.

      Report Post »  
  • ZAP
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:29am

    Barbarians

    Report Post » ZAP  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:24am

    .
    KimSeondong sounds like something you’d catch after a wild night out in Seoul…….

    I hear it burns like hell……………

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
  • southernORcobra
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:24am

    What a suprise it’s a deomocrat.

    Report Post »  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:22am

    Tear gas on their Senate floor? Wonder how long until the Democrats do that here in the US?

    Then again Pelosi and Reid would probably love the scent and delirious enhancement effects to their minds (like one Police Academy movie recruit)…

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • SpankDaMonkey
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:27am

      .
      Snow are you implying that when Harry speaks, Nancy’s in the podium?……

      That’s just wrong, funny but wrong…………

      Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
    • biohazard23
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:45am

      I just threw up a little……

      Report Post » biohazard23  
    • Ssenkrad
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 8:52am

      Why, Spank, why… That‘s an image that’ll be hard to scrub from my mind.

      Report Post » Ssenkrad  
    • showmerancher
      Posted on November 22, 2011 at 9:21am

      Come on folks. How is anyone supposed to get any work done. Every time I hear Obama’s name on the TV in the other room I picture the anchor showing a finger… now the mental image of Reid at the podium… American productivity (at least mine) is about to decline.

      Report Post »  

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