A very entertaining part of TheEye’s day is casting its gaze over The Croydonian’s site. The regular updates on DPRK-Watch are always good value for money.

As such stories are covered excellently there, the glance is therefore diverted southward to a less entertaining story but still one which ends in tears, bloodshed and lost teeth. Sympathy? None at all. It involves politicians.

The National Post tells us of a South Korean parliamentary committee introducing a free trade bill with the US kicking off a spectacular fight where sledgehammer-wielding Members of Parliament struggled to break through a barricade of office furniture.

We read: “South Korea and the United States reached the free trade deal last year. The agreement, which is expected to add about $20-billion to annual two-way trade of $78-billion, has not been approved by legislatures in either country.

The conservative Grand National Party (GNP), which holds a majority in South Korea’s 299-seat National Assembly, said it wants to approve the deal by the end of this year. Surveys show a majority of South Koreans support the deal while bureaucrats and business leaders say it will help raise local standards to international levels in key areas such as financial services.

GNP members barricaded themselves in the foreign affairs committee and formally introduced the legislation seeking to approve the deal. The opposition Democratic Party had threatened to physically block the measure from being considered. Opposition MPs said the deal would hurt farmers who would face stiff competition as protectionist measures are rolled back.

Democratic Party members tried to force their way into the chamber with sledgehammers and crow bars. TV footage showed one person at the scene bleeding from his head while another person lost a few teeth in a scuffle. A couple of doors were knocked off their hinges while a desk in the barricade behind those doors was reduced to splinters.

Both sides blamed the other for the fight with the GNP suggesting in a statement the Democrats were “a party of thugs” and the Democrats calling the GNP “arrogant.”

B Hussein Osama has already said that he is concerned about the free trade deal. His staff are bleating particularly about the sections relating to the car sector, but essentially a non free-trade Democrat Congress will be happy to see US businesses go to the wall rather than cross their Union paymasters. Oh well, Happy Christmas to US workers – you voted Democrat so I’ve no sympathy when you pay the price with your jobs.