S.Korea truckers vow fuel strike

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean truckers voted on Monday to strike over high oil prices, piling more pressure on the export-dependent country's new president whose policies have sparked mass street protests.

Lee Myung-bak has seen his support nosedive after only 100 days in office due to simmering anger over a U.S. beef import deal, jeopardizing his business-friendly economic reform plans.
The truckers' union added to the negative sentiment with a majority of its members voting on Monday to stop work unless the government introduced new countermeasures to cope with soaring diesel prices.

Lee is bracing for one of his toughest weeks in office with a major street protest planned for Tuesday and a transport strike looming.
In a bid to win back public support, he is expected to announce within days a cabinet reshuffle.
"This is a critical juncture," said Lee Nae-young, a professor of political science at Korea University.

During the race for the presidency, Lee's strength was his can-do image, first fostered when he ran Hyundai Construction and enhanced when he transformed Seoul as its mayor.
Now, it has become a weakness, with analysts saying the public sees him as an arrogant CEO trying to force through change instead of listening to the concerns of the people.
"I hope the current crisis can be a wake-up call for his presidency," said Korea University's Lee.
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At the weekend, the government tried to win back support by unveiling a plan to hand-out $10.2 billion to its lowest income citizens over the next year to offset the skyrocketing price of oil -- taking a page from Asian neighbors in targeting subsidies at the poor.
The leader of the union representing about 13,000 truckers and transport workers said that may not be enough and his members could strike later this week.
"The government measures are meaningless if they can't solve the loss we are suffering," said Kim Dal-shi.

The union said more the 90 percent of voters elected to strike, but added the date of the stoppage had not been decided.

"Further details will be announced on Thursday, which is also the last day of the negotiation period. It's up to the government to decide what happens after that," said Park Sang Hyun, one of the leading members of the union.

Protests against Lee began in April, with thousands taking to the streets and charging him with ignoring safety concerns over U.S. beef by striking what they saw as a bad deal.
U.S. Congressional leaders said a separate two-way free trade deal would be dashed unless South Korea opened its markets to U.S. beef.

The protests have grown in size and changed in focus as labor groups and other left-leaning activists have used them to criticize the economic reform plans of Lee, the first conservative leader of South Korea in 10 years.

"The beef issue has become a catalyst to mobilize these anti-reform activists," said political science professor Lee.

South Korea's president was hoping to push through the new conservative-led parliament a reform agenda that includes tax cuts across the economy, privatizing public firms and making the country more friendly to foreign investors.

Left-leaning opposition parties scuttled last week's opening session of the new National Assembly with a boycott and said they would not return until Lee renegotiated the beef deal.
(Additional reporting by Angela Moon, Lee Jin-joo and Park Ju-min; editing by Jonathan Hopfner and Jeremy Laurence)