Seoul Riot Police Battle Anti-GATT Protesters

SEOUL â€”  Riot police battled farmers and stu dents Tuesday, firing tear gas to stop thousands of demonstrators surging toward Parliament to protest a plan to open the nation’s rice market.

Protesters in the front row of the crowd wielded iron bars and fought with a huge force of riot police that had been deployed around the National Assembly building on the vast Yoido Island plaza in central Seoul.

Police vans opened fire with tear-gas launchers before the marchers reached the main gate.

The domestic Yonhap news agency said one of its reporters suffered head injuries after being attacked by stick-wielding demonstrators. There were no immediate reports of other injuries.

Nearly 20,000 farmers and students earlier marched several miles from a city park to the National Assembly after holding a rally to denounce President Kim Young Sam for pledging to open the rice market under the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Seoul is expected to ratify the trade pact next month and open its agricultural sector to imports. In the world trade talks, Seoul agreed to open its closed agricultural sector to foreign competition despite bitter opposition from farmers and students.

About one-sixth of South Korea’s 44 million people are farmers, and rice is the country’s No. 1 crop.

Because of subsidies, rice prices are five to six times higher in Korea than in the United States and other countries.

The farmers want the government to guarantee them a living before it approves the pact, which is designed to tear down trade barriers such as agricultural subsidies.