SEOUL, South Korea — What began with high school students worried about the safety of U.S. beef has grown into a major challenge to the government of new South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak — culminating in protests of 80,000 people Tuesday who failed to be placated by his entire Cabinet offering to resign.
In weeks of street rallies by angry critics of Lee, what had been seen as the former businessman’s strengths have instead been blasted as weaknesses. Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for pushing through projects as a Hyundai construction CEO and Seoul mayor, Lee has instead been labeled by protesters as a “dictator” who flouts public opinion and panders to U.S. interests.
Lee cruised to a landslide victory on hopes he would inject new life into the country’s economy. But with the global slowdown dragging on South Korea’s export-driven economy and rising food prices fueling inflation, Lee found himself quickly hedging promises that the country could soon regain its earlier dynamism.
But disappointment was already simmering when Lee’s government pushed through a last-minute agreement to resume U.S. beef imports just before he met for his first summit with President Bush in April. Beef imports had been banned for most of the time since 2003, when a case of mad cow was discovered in cattle in the U.S., closing what was once the third-largest market for American exports.
High school students were concerned that the cheaper U.S. imports would be used in their school lunches without their knowledge, despite government pledges to enforce country-of-origin labeling.
Both Seoul and Washington insist U.S. beef is safe, citing the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.
Protests are a way of life in Korea, and riot police are a common sight in the city center. Still, Tuesday’s protest — the largest yet over the beef issue with 80,000 people — was on a scale not recently seen here. Police used shipping containers to block the capital’s central thoroughfares to prevent crowds from marching to the nearby presidential Blue House.
Earlier in the day, thousands of pro-government activists demonstrated near the site of the anti-U.S. beef rally.
