Dear Family and Friends,

Did you know that there have been protests, lots of them, in South Korea opposing actions of the United States? I’m not talking historic protests here; protests of this vociferousness have not occurred for years – but they are going on now and have been for weeks. Take this last Sunday. According to the BBC, on June 1, 2008, 20,000 people took to the streets of Seoul and clashed with police over the South Korea government’s plan to resume importing beef from the United States. Water canons were deployed, dozens were hurt and more than 200 people were arrested.

Had you heard?

Frankly, I’m betting that you had not heard. And, in reading the scattered news accounts (mostly stemming from the AP and Reuters), the whole story is not being told. (Whole stories are so rarely told, are they not?) Please allow me to explain. I’ll attempt to keep a long story short.

In 2003, a cow in Washington State was found to be infected with BSE (also known as mad cow disease). South Korea, amongst other nations, preferred not to expose its populace to BSE and therefore immediately halted US beef imports. The US beef industry wasn’t happy about this loss of revenue and immediately put pressure on the US government to negotiate the re-opening imports despite subsequent additional discoveries of BSE infected cows in Texas and Alabama. Two years went by before a jittery Korean government agreed to talks; and after agreement was reached allowing the US to resume beef imports, South Korean import quarantine inspections discovered bone chips in the first shipment of beef from the United States and then ribs in another shipment – both serious violations of the agreement.

However, more important discussions than beef were also happening between the United States and South Korea: the two countries were working on a free trade agreement known here by its acronym “FTA,” which, if ratified by both countries, will be the US’s second largest trade agreement (after NAFTA). However, a US stipulation made before final agreement to the June 2007 FTA was that the South Korean government must agree to re-open US beef imports. At the time, the South Korean government’s reaction was to mostly hmm and haw.

Speed forward 6 months and the Republic of Korea had rather dubiously elected a new president, a conservative by the name of Lee, Myung-bak. I say dubiously elected because I reside in a conservative city, I work with surprisingly conservative people and everyone that I talked to about the election told me that they didn’t like Mr. Lee. Nonetheless, Lee was elected and now the former Hyundai conglomerate CEO turned president seems determined to make changes in Korea: he has taken a hard-line tact in relation to North Korea (the North Koreans are distinctly displeased) (although I cannot tell if this is a good sign or a bad sign) and President Lee is definitely pro-United States relations in the name of business. In relation to trade, President Lee’s new government quickly agreed to a Korea-U.S. beef accord the same weekend that President Lee himself drove President Bush around in a golf cart.

South Koreans are very unhappy with the beef accord. Koreans have taken to protesting US beef imports in Seoul and other cities across the country.

And beef imports aren’t all they are protesting. There is an element of anti-American sentiment here, that can flair up with both deliberate and accidental provocation. As previously mentioned, culturally Koreans are not enormously fond of “foreigners.” South Koreans are accurately aware, and on the whole grateful, that the United States offers very strong protection and economic support for their country. However, the US does have a habit of using its economic and military clout to its best advantage – and often times what works as an advantage for the US works to the disadvantage of other countries. For example, a few years ago, a US soldier was driving an armored vehicle near the DMZ when he hit and killed two little girls. Obviously, the girls were not insurgents and many Koreans felt that there was demonstrable negligence on the part of US soldiers. Two soldiers were tried but acquitted by a US military court. Koreans were, and continue to be, outraged by what they believe was a severe miscarriage of justice. This event and others like it causes anti-US sentiment to flair up in Korea. Currently, Koreans believe that the US government put undue pressure on their government regarding the sale of unsafe beef to their country and are, in small part, protesting US trade and military domination.

But, happily for us, ultimately the US isn’t the main target of the protests. Today, June 3^rd, marks the 100^th day in office for President Lee, Myung-bak. It seems that due to unpopular beef imports, botched to personnel appointments, proposed privatization of medical insurance and a very strange plan for a cross-country waterway, President Lee missed out on his post-inaugural honeymoon period. According to one recent opinion poll, 22.2% of respondents said that Lee was handling state affairs well, which is a dramatic drop from 49.4% of approving respondents from a poll conducted 5 days after his inauguration. I’ve heard the word “impeach” on the lips of several people… but President Lee’s administration is young. I suppose time’ll tell.

So there you have it: protests. And lots of them. Going on now. Opposing US beef imports. Hating the new South Korean government.

Reporting, not so live, from Daegu, South Korea; this is Laura Drumm.

PS: CNN’s June 3, 2008 article on the beef issue: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/03/korea.beef/

PS II: The International Herald Tribune’s FTA article: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/02/asia/fta.php

PS III: For the record, these protests, angry as they are, have not at all affected me. Koreans are angry with their government, a bit with the US, but my students (who I have discussed this issue with) have often sided with the government. And even when they did not agree with the government, they did not express any anti-American sentiment. And this seems to be the case everywhere. In fact, several people that I’ve talked to about this subject have been careful to emphasize that I’m safe. (Well, unless, I open a restaurant that serves delicious American steaks!)