South Korean Cabinet Offers Resignations over US Beef Imports

The entire South Korean Cabinet has offered its resignation to the president. The reason isn’t troubles with North Korea, nor does it appear to involved illicit payments. The ministers offered to resign over South Korean protests over the resumption of American beef imports. Up to 20,000 police were call out to deal with as many as a million people who took to the streets of Seoul yesterday angry that the government wasn’t looking after their health

American beef hasn’t made it to South Korean markets since 2003 when an outbreak of mad cow disease in the US shut the trade down. In April, President Lee Myung-bak’s government eased the restrictions after members of the US Congress made it clear that a bilateral trade deal would require concessions over US beef. There have been protests ever since.

What made yesterday’s protests so significant was that they fell on the 21st anniversary of the 1987 demonstrations that led to the founding of a democratic system in South Korea. The police went so far as to put shipping containers in the way of protesters trying to reach the presidential residence, the Blue House. While the protests focused on beef imports, many also expressed opposition to government plans to privatize various industries. It is the sort of situation that can rapidly get out of control.

Following a regularly scheduled cabinet meeting, a government spokesman said, “The prime minister and the entire cabinet members offered to resign, taking responsibility for the recent developments.” President Lee is likely to take a great many of them up on their offer as the ruling party took a beating in last week’s local elections.

As for the beef agreement, President Lee is asking the US to delay shipping any meat to South Korea for 30 months. A Korean diplomatic delegation has arrived in Washington to seek support for the delay. However, the South Korean government has made it clear that it won’t renegotiate because that would imperil the bilateral trade agreement in its entirety. One can’t help but think that the protesters have a point, that maybe the government isn’t listening, or is listening to people in Washington more than the people in South Korea.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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