South Koreans Fill Streets of Seoul to Continue Protest Against US Beef Imports

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AMY GOODMAN: We turn now, finally, to another story about Korea. For the past two months, protesters have been filling the streets of Seoul condemning a decision to lift a ban on imported beef from the United States. On Wednesday, I talked to Michael Hansen in Seoul, senior scientist for Consumers Union. He was there testifying before the South Korean National Assembly at a special committee hearing on mad cow disease. And I asked him to explain what’s happening there.

MICHAEL HANSEN: What it’s all about is, there was a deal that was struck between Korea and the United States on April 18th, and that deal would completely open the market in Korea to US beef. Previously, they had only allowed a small amount in. When they opened the market on April 18th, that was a controversial issue. However, there was a TV program that aired on April 29th called PD Diary, and within two days after that program aired on April 29th, that set off this massive outpouring. And on Friday, May 2nd, there were 20,000 people in the streets of Seoul, and there have been thousands of people in the streets every day since then ...

MICHAEL HANSEN: The Korean concern is—with US beef is, they’re concerned about mad cow disease, particularly the fact that older animals are being allowed into this country, and so they’re concerned about that risk. They know how bad the situation is in the US, how little we test and look at that, so they are just very concerned that they could be exposed to mad cow disease ...

MICHAEL HANSEN: ... And we’ve had mad cow in the United States. Our first case was in December of 2003. We’ve had a couple cases since then. And what happens is export markets dry up. So the Korean market was closed, and the Japanese market, and those are among the—the Japanese market is the largest export market for US beef, and Korea is number three. So this was about trying to reopen the Korean market, and they were trying to do that, because Korea desperately wanted the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement ...

http://i1.democracynow.org/2008/8/7/south_koreans_fill_streets_of_seoul