S.Korean Cabinet offers to resign

South Korea's entire cabinet offered to resign yesterday in the face of massive street protests, as its increasingly unpopular president warned that Asia's fourth-largest economy could be heading into crisis.

The protests against the government, in office barely three months, were sparked by public outcry over a deal to widen its market to US beef imports and have cast a darkening cloud over President Lee Myung-bak's plans for sweeping reform.

"The prime minister offered the cabinet's resignation at the regular meeting this morning (with Lee)," a spokeswoman at the prime minister's office said, in what local media said was a response to the mounting anti-government protests.