MAD COW: In the largest anti-government protest since the late 1980s, more than 80,000 South Koreans demonstrated outside President Lee Myung-bak's residence in Seoul. Lee's April free trade agreement with the United States included a provision for importing American beef into South Korea, which upset protesters worried about mad cow disease.

South Korea restricted American beef imports in 2003 after mad cow disease surfaced in U.S. cattle. On April 18, Lee lifted the beef ban. Protesters insisted he renegotiate the entire free trade agreement, but Lee, after talking with President Bush Wednesday, said that would hurt the economy. Instead, he promised to renegotiate the age of cattle allowed into the country. Cows older than 30 months are more at risk for mad cow disease than younger ones.

Anti-Lee Protests Include Wider Range of South Korean Discontent

South Koreans elected Lee president in February. He came into power on a pro-business platform, promising to increase South Korea's economic growth to 6% or 7%. This proved to be overly optimistic during a time of rapidly increasing fuel and food costs. Analysts said he will be lucky to keep growth at last year's level of 5%.

Recent demonstrations underscored South Koreans' increasing unhappiness with Lee's policies and style of leadership, including his...

• signing the beef deal without building consensus before hand
• failing to take seriously his country's health concerns
• giving U.S. beef exporters a better deal than given to other Asian countries
• bowing to U.S. pressure to either sign the beef deal or forego the entire trade package
• shifting government attempts to control inflation, now at a seven-year high
• privatizing some government-run businesses
• moving too close to the United States
• being too hard-line toward North Korea
• pushing an education overhaul

Lee Apologizes for Miscalculating South Koreans' Reaction to American Beef Imports

Lee apologized twice in the last month for his handling of the trade treaty.

"But I failed to read the people's demand for food safety," Lee said. "No matter how urgent a national task I thought it was, I should have studied more carefully how people would react to the result and what people wanted. My government and I painfully regret this." (International Herald Tribune, 6/19/08)

To appease his critics, Lee might make the following gestures:

• appoint his chief conservative opponent as prime minister
• abandon his election promise to dig a canal across South Korea
• fire some of his top aides
• shuffle his cabinet members
• focus on stabilizing prices rather than boosting economic growth

Lee Plans to Privatize South Korea's State-Run Companies

Although Lee's Finance Minister Kang Man-soo is said to be responsible for the country's inflation, the president refuses to fire him.

"We can't change personnel every time a problem crops up," Lee said. "For efficiency's sake, I will rather refocus the direction of the economic policies pursued by the ministries." (Wall Street Journal, 6/19/08)

President Lee also said he would transform South Korea into a developed nation through privatization and deregulation of state-run companies.

His privatization plan doesn't include the utility companies or the health care system, however, which the state will continue to run.

Copyright © 2009 Informify

Question for Readers:

Do you think the United States should renegotiate the beef section of the trade deal with South Korea to help President Lee?