S Koreas parliament ratifies US trade deal

South Korea’s parliament ratified a long-stalled free trade deal with the United States on Tuesday after ruling party lawmakers forced a vote amid shouts and shoves from opposition rivals.South Korean lawmakers voted 151 to 7 in favor of ratifying the landmark trade agreement in a surprise legislative session called by the ruling Grand National Party, parliamentary officials said.Shouts filled the National Assembly as lawmakers pushed, shoved and screamed while ruling party lawmakers forced their way onto the parliamentary floor. One opposition lawmaker fired tear gas, reports said. Some lawmakers were seen wiping their eyes after being doused with the chemical.Security guards later manhandled that opposition lawmaker out of the chamber as he shouted and tried to resist being thrown out. Opposition members also scuffled with police outside the National Assembly building as they tried to get inside to block the deals passage. The pact is Americas biggest free-trade agreement since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Two-way trade between South Korea, Asias fourth-largest economy, and the United States totaled about $90 billion last year, according to the South Korean government.After the deal was approved less than an hour after the tussle began, dozens of opposition lawmakers and aides who fought hard to prevent passage of a deal they say favors US over South Korean workers sat slumped around the chamber podium. One legislator leaned her head against the shoulder of another as they both stared at the floor in silence.President Lee Myung-bak’s ruling party commands a majority in South Korea’s single-chamber, 295-seat parliament but hadnt forced the deal through earlier, apparently out of worry over a public backlash ahead of next years presidential and parliamentary elections.