By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean police on Wednesday tried toclear the remnants of a massive protest that clogged centralSeoul as the president looked to embrace a political rival tobolster his troubled government.
The protests against President Lee Myung-bak, in officebarely three months, were sparked by public outcry over a dealto widen the beef market to U.S. imports and have cast adarkening cloud over his plans for sweeping, pro-businessreforms.
In what was described by local media as the biggestdemonstration in the capital in about 20 years, mothers withtoddlers, college students, office workers and radical labouractivists shouted "Lee Myung-bak Out" as they marched withcandles through the streets on Tuesday night.
Riot police battled hundreds of remaining protesters at abarricade of sand-filled shipping containers that blocked themain street leading to the presidential Blue House to clear theroad during the Wednesday morning rush hour.
Lee's can-do image, first earned as CEO of HyundaiConstruction, helped him win the presidential race.
But this has now become his greatest liability. The publicsees him as too focused on pushing through his own plans andunconcerned about their needs, analysts have said.
Lee looks ready to call Park Geun-hye, his main rival forcontrol of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP), intohis government as prime minister, the Chosun Ilbo newspapersaid.
The April beef deal with the United States was meant tohelp a separate bilateral free-trade accord that U.S.congressional leaders threatened to block unless South Koreaopened up its market to beef imports.
But widespread concern over mad-cow disease in U.S. beefquickly turned the issue into a lightning rod for a broad rangeof grievances against Lee's government.
His cabinet offered to resign on Tuesday to takeresponsibility for the fallout from the beef deal.
Analysts said Lee expects Park, who once ran the GNP and isalso the daughter of an assassinated South Korean president, tounite the faction-ridden party and have her experiencedpolitical hand guide his reforms through parliament.
"The Park Geun-hye card is an essential one to play nowbecause nobody is trying to listen to his voice any more," saidChoi Jin, the chief of the Institute for PresidentialLeadership.
Lee stormed to a landslide victory in a Decemberpresidential election with pledges to rebuild the world's 13thlargest economy but now has a support rate of under 20 percent.
Local media said Lee would start a government reshufflethis week and speculated he would ditch his farm, health andeducation ministers, along with several aides, and possibly theforeign and finance ministers.
The growing political storm has all but blocked thegovernment's plans for major economic reform, including taxcuts, privatisation of major state-run firms and banks andefforts to make the country more accessible to foreigninvestment.
The new conservative-dominated parliament has been unableto sit because the opposition has boycotted its opening.
(Additional reporting by Park Ju-min; Editing by NickMacfie and David Fogarty)
