S. Korean activists protest Peres visit

Protesters denouncing Israeli President Shimon Peres as a "killer" rallied Thursday in the South Korean capital as Peres held talks with his counterpart Lee Myung-Bak.

Some 50 activists gathered outside the Israeli embassy to protest at last week's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Some defaced an Israeli flag with palm prints stained in the color of blood. Four busloads of riot police were on standby, but there were no clashes.

The visit has become controversial since Israel's raid that killed nine Turkish activists and sparked worldwide condemnation.

Israeli reports said Peres' visit to South Korea was downgraded from a "state" to "working" visit. The second leg of his Asian trip, to Vietnam, was postponed.

South Korea's foreign ministry denied the visit's status had been downgraded, saying it was always scheduled as a working trip.

An official from the prestigious Korea University told AFP it scrapped a plan to award Peres an honorary doctorate on Wednesday, but Israeli sources said the change came from the president himself.

The President's Residence issued a statement saying it requested to cancel the ceremony 10 days ago and have his speech held at a business center in the city instead.

Sources from the President's Residence said the change was made for security reasons, and out of concern that the Israeli security elements would not be able to prevent provocations.

Anti-Israel protest in Seoul (Photo: AFP)

The change was made according to the president's instructions. "It was our initiative, and it is a lie to claim that the university called off the ceremony," a President's Residence source said on Thursday in response to the AFP report.

"We are here to denounce the Lee Myung-Bak government for welcoming the internationally criticized president," priest Choi Hun-Kook said beside a banner reading "Shimon Peres the Killer".

"Lift the siege on Gaza immediately," read another banner held by Choi and his colleagues.

Peres' office said the Israeli delegation would include two government ministers and 60 chiefs of leading Israeli companies in the security, infrastructure, communication, high-tech and water industries.

The Israeli president and his delegation Wednesday toured the country's top scientific university, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Israel imposed a blockade of Gaza in 2006 after the capture of one of its soldiers and tightened it the following year when the Islamist Hamas movement seized power on the narrow strip.

Israel says the blockade is necessary to contain Hamas, which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, and to prevent the smuggling of weapons. Critics slam it as "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents.