SEOUL (AFP) — South Korea mounted a massive security operation Tuesday as US President George W. Bush arrived for a two-day visit and opponents of American beef imports took to the streets.
Bush touched down at a military airport south of Seoul and was driven to a luxury hotel after a welcoming ceremony including a 21-gun salute.
A few miles away, drum-beating and flag-waving protesters streamed into a downtown plaza ringed by hundreds of riot police and police buses.
Conservative activists earlier in the day had staged a far larger show of strength in support of the visit.
Police said about 7,000 officers would guard Bush, while 17,000 more were being deployed during his stay to control the beef protests -- the latest in a months-long series sparked by the supposed dangers of mad cow disease.
Thousands of troops will also be mobilised, the defence ministry said.
President Lee-Myung Bak, a pro-US conservative, ordered tight security. The close US relationship is "the backbone of South Korean diplomacy," he told his cabinet.
After a decade of sometimes strained relations under liberal presidents, Lee has made stronger US ties his top foreign priority. But his first summit with Bush, at Camp David in April, ushered in a summer of discontent at home.
His government's decision on the eve of the summit to resume US beef imports, in a bid to pave the way for a broader free trade agreement (FTA), led to months of occasionally violent rallies.
The rallies largely subsided after Seoul secured extra health safeguards for US beef imports. Police estimated the Tuesday evening protest at the Chonggye plaza numbered only 2,000, while organisers put it at 5,000.
"Down with Lee Myung-Bak!" and "We oppose Bush's trip," demonstrators chanted. A student trampled on a picture of Bush and Lee bearing the slogan: "No Bush. No mad cow."
Riot police briefly fired water cannon and detained about 30 people when protesters tried to occupy a street after marching from the plaza.
Earlier Tuesday, some 30,000 military veterans, rightwing activists and conservative Christians prayed for a strong alliance, according to a police estimate.
"Welcome President Bush -- Let's strengthen US-Korea alliance" read a giant banner suspended from balloons. Hymns blared through loudspeakers.
Polls show many South Koreans have a favourable view of the United States, which fought for the South in the 1950-53 war and keeps 28,500 troops in the country to counter any threat from North Korea.
Lee and Bush will meet Wednesday for talks expected to be short on substantive developments, given that the US leader is near the end of his term.
The two will press for early ratification of the FTA, but US officials concede there are no guarantees it can pass Congress in an election year.
US and South Korean officials say efforts to push the denuclearisation of North Korea through six-nation negotiations will figure prominently.
After the North handed over a declaration of its nuclear programme in June, Bush announced his intention to remove it from a terrorism blacklist.
But Washington says the communist regime must first agree to a comprehensive protocol on ways to verify the declaration.
Pyongyang's ties with Seoul are icy following the killing of a South Korean housewife at the North's Mount Kumgang resort in July.
South Korea is expected to seek support for its demand to mount an on-site investigation into the killing, which happened after the tourist strayed into a military area.
Dennis Wilder, a top aide to Bush on Asian affairs, said the US president wants the North to hold an open investigation in which the South can take part.
The two leaders will also discuss a "21st-century strategic alliance" and global issues including Iraq and Afghanistan.
South Korea has about 500 troops in Iraq on reconstruction work. It withdrew medical and engineering military units from Afghanistan last year.
Wilder said the United States would like to see a greater role for Seoul in Afghanistan if Korean public opinion supported this.
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