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South Korea and the U.S. resume free trade talks on Monday amid tighter security and the looming shadow of North Korea's recent nuclear test, which has prompted global condemnation and sanctions.

Thousands of farmers and supporters planned to take part in boisterous street protests against this week's talks, the fourth since June, to be held on South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju. Authorities sent 10,000 riot police.

Police blocked possible approaches to the venue of the talks, the Jeju Shilla Hotel, using container boxes as they laid out heavy security. Seogwipo is the island's southern beach city.

Protesters accused police of exercising excessive measures despite their pledge to hold peaceful demonstrations. "Martial law has virtually been put in place around the talks' venue," said Lee Won-jae, an official at the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA, which organizes the protests.

The Seoul-Washington trade talks, which began in June, have so far made no big headway, as both sides have been trying to shield their respective weak industries. Korean farmers fear that an FTA with the U.S. would threaten their livelihoods.

This round of talks, slated to continue until Friday, comes against a backdrop of North Korea's Oct. 9 underground nuclear test. The U.S. is trying to rally stronger international support for arms and financial sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council on North Korea.

Government officials and independent analysts agree that the North's nuclear crisis would spoil the trade talks. Some said it would rather speed up the negotiations.

"While the nuclear test clearly increases tension within the region, it is not likely to have a negative impact on the FTA negotiations," said Troy Stangarone, director of congressional affairs and trade analysis at Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, in an e-mailed interview with Yonhap News Agency.

"Rather than casting a cloud over the negotiations, the test highlights the importance of both the U.S.-South Korea relationship and moving forward with the FTA," he said.

Stephen Norton, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative, insisted that an FTA with the U.S. would help allay rising security concern among South Koreans in the aftermath of the North's nuclear test.

"The events on the Korean peninsula simply underscore the importance of maintaining close ties between the United States and the Republic of Korea. A free trade agreement will advance that effort," Norton said.

Voicing concern about possibly jittery foreign investors, South Korea's Finance and Economy Minister Kwon O-kyu said the North Korean nuclear crisis has highlighted the importance of an FTA with the U.S.

Yet, it's unclear whether any real progress would be on the bargaining table in Jeju. Rice, one of the most sensitive items for South Korea, will be discussed for the first time.

More than half of 4 million South Korean farmers are growing rice, the nation's No. 1 cash crop.

"Signing a free trade agreement with the U.S., the world's agricultural powerhouse, is an execution of the death penalty for Korean farmers," the Korean Peasants League, a nationwide farmers' group, said on its Web site.

South Korean farmers have deep distrust in their government's agricultural policy.

Under a 2004 agreement with nine rice-exporting nations, including the U.S. and China, South Korea must raise its rice import quota to 7.96 percent of its total domestic consumption until 2014.

Currently, South Korea levies an average 380 percent tariff on imported rice.

Besides rice, other agricultural goods, pharmaceuticals and automobiles are among major sticking points in the talks.

Analysts agree that South Korea's long-standing push to get its industrial park in North Korea to be covered by the proposed FTA may lose its strength because of Pyongyang's nuclear test.

South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, is the United States' seventh largest trading partner with two-way trade reaching US$72 billion last year. For South Korea, the U.S. is its second largest export market after China.

If a deal is signed with South Korea, it would be the biggest trade accord for the U.S. since it launched the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada in 1994.

Time is running out for the two countries to reach a deal by the end of this year. Officials say a six-month period is necessary for a deal to be ratified by their legislatures before June 30, when the U.S. President George Bush's so-called "fast-track" trade authority expires.

One more round of talks is scheduled in December.

Protest organizers have vowed to bring over 5,000 farmers and activists onto the streets of Jeju next week to coincide with the fourth round of free trade talks. Police have set up a 1-kilometer-radius exclusion zone around the venue.

Earlier in the day, some 70 activists representing farming groups held a press conference at Jeju airport, calling for their government to immediately stop free trade talks with the U.S.

On Sunday evening, about 1,700 police officers were on duty to bar protesters from approaching the venue, a senior intelligence officer working with security services here said.

Seogwipo, South Korea, Oct. 22 (Yonhap News)