By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul |
Protestors have numbered 20,000 who object to US beef imports |
Many people are wondering how it could have come to this.
Not least South Korea's President, Lee Myung-bak, who, just 100 days into office has shown he has the opposite of the Midas touch.
The landslide popularity that brought him to power has evaporated, the more humiliating opinion polls put his support rating barely into double digits.
The reason?
A once seemingly mundane and long running agricultural dispute has mushroomed into one of the biggest political crises in recent memory.
It is a crisis that has taken shape on the streets.
Mass movement
What started as a series of relatively small-scale candlelit vigils against a lifting of the five-year ban on American beef imports, has now taken on the air of a mass movement.
Mothers pushing prams march alongside ranks of high-pitched school children, all carrying delicate, fluttering flames through the dark Seoul night.
The symbolism is potent. It is a picture of the nation's most cherished and vulnerable under threat from a cavalier government and the poisoned, imported produce of a foreign power.
"I am afraid of American beef," one 13-year-old protester told a US newspaper reporter. "I could study hard in school. I could get a good job and then I could eat beef and just die."
This week, the growing intensity of the protests and sporadic outbreaks of violence finally forced a government U-turn.
The lifting of the ban on US beef has been put on hold.
"The essence of the beef protests is anti-American," said Keun Park, President of the Korea-America Friendship Society.
"The left-wing media has instigated the feeling that there is a good reason to fear US beef."
Age issue
Some of the claims made about the risks of mad cow disease are certainly difficult to substantiate.
Young mothers and children say they are afraid to eat US meat |
South Korea's marching citizens have been worried onto the streets by widely circulated rumours that American consumers do not eat beef from cattle aged over 30 months, and that large quantities of this more dangerous, older meat will flood into Korea.
It was with reference to these fears that the South Korean government suspended the import agreement this week, saying it wanted 30-month and older cattle removed from the deal.
But according to statistics from the US beef industry, 18% of cattle slaughtered in the US for human consumption is above, in many cases well above, 30 months of age.
The meat from these animals, considered perfectly safe, is ground into beef for burgers and other such delights.
Americans, it seems, do not just eat 30-month-old cows, they eat them in vast quantities.
And according to Joe Schuele from the US National Cattlemen's Beef Association, "research shows that before exports were stopped in 2003, less than 2% of the total beef we sent to South Korea came from cattle aged over 30 months".
It is hardly a flood.
American interests
Among the more hysterical claims, of course, the fears of many South Koreans about the safety of imported beef are genuinely held.
After all, there are those in the US, both producers and consumers, who argue that there should be much more testing of slaughtered cattle than there is at present.
But central to the South Korean government's willingness to open its ports is the certification of US beef hygiene standards by the World Organisation for Animal Health.
According to this intergovernmental food-safety body, the US removes risky material from slaughtered animals, conducts adequate testing and has feed policies that control the risk and make its meat safe for export.
South Korea has yet to supply enough information to the World Organisation for Animal Health to allow an assessment of its own mad cow risk to be carried out.
Hahm Sung-deuk, professor of presidential studies at Korea University, did not agree that the beef protests were motivated by anti-American sentiment, but he admitted that outsiders may well be baffled as to why it has become such a serious issue.
"People have become gradually disappointed with President Lee," he said. "There have been a series of errors."
One of the biggest ones, he said, was to give the appearance of capitulating to American political interests.
Free-trade deal risked
Politicians in Washington were threatening to scupper a US-South Korea free-trade deal - one that President Lee is championing - unless he gave them back what used to be America's third largest market for beef exports.
That he duly obliged, seemingly without consultation and with the agreement to include almost all beef products, of all ages, may have proved the catalyst for the rising public anger.
South Korea's political leadership has been caught out by the uproar |
"People felt that this guy was just out of touch," Professor Hahm added. "Now the US needs to come to his assistance."
The Americans however seem reluctant to drop cattle aged over 30 months from the agreement, although some might ask why, given that these older animals make up such a small share of the export market.
Not all South Koreans agree with the candlelit protesters who continue to march through the streets of Seoul each night.
Lee Sae Jin, a 25-year-old university student, bravely held his own, one-man protest in favour of US beef imports.
He was soon shepherded away by a policeman, led off through the rather angry crowd that had gathered to read his posters.
"We are an exporting nation," he had written.
"We are creating the fear of mad cow disease in our own minds. Candlelights should be used to brighten the darkness, not burn down our own homes." |
첫댓글 영국은 왜 이러삼...?
왜 얘네들까지 이래? 뭐 잘못 먹었어? 아님 지들 나라 일 아니라고 말 막하는거야?
문제는 우리는 사골이랑 그런걸먹으니까 더 심하다는거자너 우리가살코기만먹나 ㅡ
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 그럼 너네들도 30개월 이상먹으면 우리도 먹을께 ㅆㅂ
그말이 정답이네요 ㅋㅋㅋ
그러게요. 얘들한테도 돈쥐어줬나.
걔네먹는데 우리가 왜먹어요 ㅡㅡ
미쳤군 ㅋㅋ
흠 부시가쥐박이배후군 그러니그렇치;;
그럼 니네나 많이 처 묵
그래 그러는 니네나 많이드센 ㅋㅋ
영국도 oie에서 미국과 같은 지위 얻어서 울 나라에 팔아 먹을라고. 아놔
그런건가요?ㅡㅡ; 이룬 덴장할.
저두 영국언론은 객관적인 보도를 하기로 정평이 나있는곳인데용 저두 왜 갑자기 이딴 보도를 하는건지 의문이드네용 혹시 청와대랑 미국정부의 배후설?? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
이게 소고기문제로만 보이나? ㅡㅡㅋ
그러게요. 소고기문제 넘어선지 오래됐는데. 대통령 자질 문제인데.
그러는 영국은 광우병의 원고장이라는거~
재네들도 우리한테 팔려고...
ㅡㅡ
난 월령보다 더 짜증나는게 검역주권이다...
미친 흰둥이들
영국 쇠고기도 30개월이상 한국에 수입요구,,,뉴스에 났어요
결국엔 이럴려고 그러는구나. 우리가 쇠고기 협상 잘못해서 캐나다에서도 수입요구 하고 있다고 들었음.
영국이 자기도 우리나라에 수출할려고 수 쓰는 것 같은데...
지네들도 광우병 통제국 지위를 얻었으니.... 장사속 보이고 있음.... 차후 우리와 교섭해야되니 선수치고 있음.
그러니까 그네 국민들 광우병 걸려서 쳐 뒤지지요...
우리나라에 수입시킬려고 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ bbc실망했삼, 너네 그르지마요
영국이나 많이 드세요...글고 검역 주권도 중요하거던요? 기타 다른 많은 문제도..
우리가 안먹겠다는데 다른 나라가 왠 간섭인지.. 영국도 미국거 수입 안하는걸로 알고 있는데
자기네들은 안먹으면서. 한국은 먹으래. 자기네들 입으로 안들어간다고. 참 쉽네.
광우병원산지 영국 미친 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
이번에 영국,스페인 통제국 지위를 얻었다죠? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 수출하겠다 이거지?
지네들 소도 수출시키려는 명박스런 전략~~~
자기네들꺼까지 한국인들 먹일려고?ㅡㅡ^ 아놔~ 뭐 우리나라 사람은 인간도 아닌가. 왜 지들 안먹는 쓰레기. 한국인들 먹일려고 그래. 명박이가 자기네 국민을 우습게 보니까 다른나라 사람들도 우리나라 국민이 우스운가.
해석 다시 해보세요. 30개월 이상 소가 광우병 우려가 없는 것이아니고, 미국인들이 30개월 이상 쇠고기를 먹지 않다는 것이 근거 없는 루머라는 거죠.
미국이 캐나다산에 30개월령 표시 요구한것는 뭔가?
그래.. 그러니 너네나 많이 먹고 광우병 1위국가 고수해라.. 지들도 우리나라에 팔아먹어보려고... 여튼 자본주의는 안돼....
영국 미국 한 통속이락 보면 되겠지. 지들도 먹지 않는 것을
광우병 원조네.... 앞에 "원조" 붙여서 파세요
영국도 정말 음흉한 나라.. 그 나라도 인종차별 심하다고 합니다.
이제 영국도 시작이군요. 영국하고 스페인하고 oie통제국지위얻었다고 하던데 앞으로 30개월넘은 소 우리나라에 팔아먹으려고 수쓰는군요.