Farmer in trade talks protest

A South Korean farmer was in a critical condition yesterday after he set himself ablaze during a memorial service for a fellow farmer who stabbed himself to death in a protest against the recent world trade talks in Cancun, Mexico.

Park Dong-ho, 31, suffered severe burns at the service in north Kyongsang province on Thursday after pouring petrol on himself and setting it alight.

"He cannot breathe without artificial respiratory equipment," said a nurse at the Yeung Nam University medical centre in Taegu, 150 miles south-east of Seoul.

The body of Lee Kyung-hae, whose suicide over the World Trade Organisation's attempt to open up global agricultural markets caused considerable shock, arrived on Thursday in Seoul on a flight from Los Angeles, and was met by hundreds of local farmers.

The suicide of the hardened agricultural activist has made Lee a martyr to his cause and triggered a series of farmers' protests in Korea against the government's agricultural policies and the WTO talks.

But despite the depth of feeling, the country's agriculture minister said that opening up the highly protected sector was inevitable.

"The government will do the best to minimise any damage on local agricultural industries as widening the opening of agricultural markets is unavoidable," Huh Sang-man told reporters yesterday.

The World Trade Organisation's talks in Cancun, Mexico, collapsed on Sunday after rich and poor states fought bitterly over farm reform and proposed new rules to slash red tape on agricultural imports and crack down on corruption.

The developing countries [led by Brazil India and China] said they had scored a political victory by proving that they would no longer be bullied into a bad deal by the dominant trading powers, the United States and Europe.