What's the beef?

The following is an article I wrote for the Korea Sun magazine. I've written a few this past while but none have been as contraversial as this one. There are over a million people who have been protesting this issue every week for the last few months, so i wanted to make sure i gave an objective analysis. But it's interesting about how this country is handling this issue. The Koreans are so different than Westerners..

Korea’s Beef with the American Cow

On June 10 2008, an estimated 500,000 people took to the streets of downtown Seoul, armed with candles and slogans. With barricades and riot police to keep the angry masses in check, they were united with one common goal: the ousting of Korean president Lee Myung-bak.

To anyone who hasn’t been keeping up with these demonstrations, or to someone who may have just arrived in Korea, these protests must seem fairly alarming. Although they are often referred to as the “mad cow protests”, there is more to this issue than meets the eye. As it turns out, the import of American cow is only one of many aspects to the Korean people’s beef with the government. To give a better understanding of what’s been going on, here is a timeline of events leading up to the present.

2003 – The Korean government suspends imports of American beef after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly referred to as mad cow disease. Prior to this ban, Korea was the third largest importer of American beef, with 80% of its beef imports coming from the US.

April 2007 – Seoul and Washington reach a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Experts estimate that this agreement could increase the countries’ two-way annual trade by $20 billion. However, the FTA will only pass if Seoul once again allows the import of American beef.

May 2007 – The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) classified the US as a “controlled risk country” for mad cow disease. This classification states that the US beef and beef products, from cattle of any age, can be safely traded in accordance with international guidelines¹.

December 2007 – Lee Myung-bak wins a landslide victory and becomes the president of South Korea. While his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, was criticized over his ‘leftist, anti-US’ sentiment, Mr. Lee was voted in to strengthen the US relationship and to revitalize the economy.

April 18 2008 – Mr. Lee travels to the US to meet with Mr. Bush. While in Washington he announced the lifting of the ban on American beef imports, showing his eagerness to rebuild ties with the US.

April 29 2008 – MBC’s PD Diary (a Korean news program) aired with a special presentation on American beef and mad cow disease. In this report, it is claimed that Koreans are three times more susceptible to contracting the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD – the human strain of BSE). It also highlighted the death of a 20 year old American woman who was said to have died from vCJD. These two key points stated on the show were found to be untrue, and PD Diary was forced to retract their statements. However, even if the program apologized for its yellow journalism (which it hasn’t yet), the damage was already done. An editorial in The Chosun Ilbo puts it nicely; “It’s as if MBC had virtually set the entire country on fire and was trying to hide the matches.”²

May 2 2008 – The protests began, and they have yet to cease.

The fear of a mad cow outbreak continued to grow throughout May and June as the internet only amplified the shoddy journalism. But the import of American beef is not the only thing that brought people onto the streets; it served as the initial spark that brought many other issues to flame. The privatization of state-run companies and the construction of the controversial cross-country canal are among these issues. Yet the main concern runs deeper than any of these. Many of the protesters will tell you that the main issue is not so much about the beef; it’s about Korea selling out its national pride to a bigger power.

Mr. Lee has been accused of paying tribute to Washington, as the kings of the past paid tribute to Chinese emperors. Many Korean people have suppressed feelings of resentment over the sway the US has on their country. They have fought so hard for independence, the last thing they want is to be taken advantage of by another nation. The American beef deal was seen as just that, with Mr. Lee bowing to the US demands.

On top of that, citizens are angry at their CEO President, who treats them as if they were his employees. By making quick decisions without acknowledging the wishes of the people, Mr. Lee was viewed as dictatorial. These street protests have been compared to the massive demonstrations made in 1987, where the people actually brought down the military dictatorship. The BBC writes that “some protesters see the conservative President Lee as representing a return to South Korea's authoritarian past - and the beef protests as vital in resisting this.”³

The US beef is expected to hit the shelves by the beginning of July, but no one can predict when the protests will end. Even if the street demonstrations come to a stop, the online protests are sure to continue. How will the FTA affect the Korean economy? Will Mr. Lee be able to recover from this political nightmare? Will the fears of BSE entering Korea ever die down? Obviously there are more questions than answers. The only thing one can be sure of is the price of American beef: it’s going to be cheap.