Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- More than 4,000 protesters marched on Hong Kong's Convention Centre, some clashing with riot police, as the World Trade Organization meeting opened in the Chinese city.

South Korean peasant activists, who have vowed to halt the biannual summit, joined with activists from India to Indonesia for the march, passing shuttered shops amid heavy security.

Demonstrators chanting ``WTO is Killing Farmers'' were halted 500 meters from the Hong Kong Convention Center where WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy and Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang addressed the opening session of trade ministers from 149 member states. About 50 farmers holding South Korea's flag jumped into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor and attempted to swim towards the center.

``We are warning the Hong Kong authorities, we won't let you hinder our peaceful demonstration plan,'' Park Min Woong, secretary general of the Korean Peasants' League, said at a rally before the march. ``If you block us we'll take other measures to achieve our goals.''

The WTO's biennial ministerial meetings are magnets for demonstrators from groups such as Oxfam, seeking a fairer trade deal for poor countries, to the anti-capitalist agitators who forced the cancellation of the opening ceremony for the meeting in Seattle six years ago.

Hong Kong's 27,000-person police force has prepared for today's meeting since the city won the right to host the global summit two years ago. Violent protests marred the 1999 Seattle meeting and a member of the South Korean peasants' organization killed himself in Cancun, Mexico at the 2003 event.

``I am confident we can cope with any scenario,'' Dick Lee, Hong Kong's commissioner of police, told reporters yesterday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, the venue for the meeting. ``If anyone uses violence, the Hong Kong Police are capable of dealing with it.''

Ratified

The Korean farmers accounted for more than a third of the protestors demonstrators who marched from Victoria Park to the site near the talks venue.

The activists are protesting the opening up of South Korea's rice market under a WTO agreement forged last year. The nation's parliament ratified the accord last month after an 11- month delay, paving the way for stores in Korea to start selling imported rice for the first time.

``It's very hard to admit that Korea has to import rice right now as we produce more rice than we consume,'' said Kim Gyong Han, a farmer from Hoengseong in Gangwon Province who's attending the WTO protest. The WTO agreement will mean ``the death of Korean farmers,'' he said.

Rice farming generates a third of the 66-year-old's 30 million won ($29,000) annual income with the remainder coming from growing pepper and tobacco. ``I'm very worried about the threat to Korea's sovereign right.''

Closed

The area immediately around the venue is closed to the public, with access restricted to delegates, media and members of non-government groups, including some opposed to the WTO. The building extends into the harbor and police boats are patrolling surrounding waters, from which regular water traffic is banned.

Plexiglas riot shields were stacked up alongside the conference center and authorities had fire hoses to turn on protesters who try to break through the cordon.

Authorities deployed officers from the special Emergency Unit carrying three-foot diameter circular shields and with riot helmets attached to their belts on elevated walkways overlooking the protest route.

Peaceful

An earlier march on Dec. 11 was peaceful, with police estimating the size of the crowd at more than 3,000 people. A further 1,200 South Korean farmers have arrived since that event. There is a third march scheduled for Dec. 18, the conference's closing day.

Katy Chung, 26, the manager of Pret A Manger in the Harbour Center said she had no plans to shutter the sandwich shop unless the protests turn violent. ``We're not worried about this protest because the last demonstration was peaceful,'' said Chung, who's worked for the chain for four years. ``We're more concerned about the protest on the 18th.''

Water-filled plastic barriers and metal fencing surround the closed zone, and public plazas and other open areas near the convention center have been walled off for the duration of the conference. Police have installed fencing to keep people away from the edges of elevated public areas.

The nearest designated protest zone, which is within sight of the convention center, is in a cargo-working area in the same district, Wan Chai. An adjoining playground has also been earmarked for demonstrators.

In Seattle, more than 600 people were arrested during days of running battles between police and demonstrators, which prompted the city to impose a curfew. At the 2003 meeting in Cancun, Mexico, a South Korean peasant activist committed suicide in public. The city's police chief quit after the event.

No Deterrent

Still, a heavy police presence is no deterrent to South Korean farmers who stage often violent protests. South Korean authorities deployed 30,000 police and security personnel to protect a regional trade summit in the nation's second-largest city, Busan, last month.

Riot police used water cannons and batons against protesters wielding iron bars as the demonstration outside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan turned violent. Anti free-trade protesters used ropes to pull down shipping containers blocking bridges approaching the venue.

Demonstrations in Seoul on Nov. 15 left more than 100 injured after police used water canons, batons and riot shields to repel farmers armed with sticks and stones.

The conference aims to reach an outline for updating the rules of trade for the WTO's 149 member nations. A draft agenda for this month's meeting shows Brazil, the U.S., the European Union and India differing widely over the limits of one another's offers to cut farm spending, industrial duties and limits on foreign investment.

To contact the reporters for this story: Joshua Fellman in Hong Kong at jfellman@bloomberg.net ; Sangim Han in Hong Kong at sihan@bloomberg.net