(AFP)

“What started as a trickle of small protests against a beef deal with the US has swelled into a torrent of anti-government street rallies, invoking the memory of pro-democracy movements in the 1980s that brought down the then military dictatorship.

The march yesterday was timed to coincide with the 21st anniversary of the huge pro-democracy protests that shook the authoritarian regime of the time to its foundations and paved the way for the country’s first free elections.

The protest against Mr Lee started when students began rallying against his Government’s decision in April to resume suspended imports of American beef.

It quickly snowballed into a broader demonstration against Mr Lee’s leadership style and his policies on everything from his hardline stance on North Korea to his education reform programs.

Mr Lee, a pro-American conservative, agreed in April just before a summit with US President George W. Bush to reopen the country’s beef market – resolving the issue that had long been an irritant in bilateral ties.” The Australian

“The protests reflect discontent with “a lot of national issues,” including high unemployment, education, and the economy, says Moon Kook Hyun, who campaigned for president on his own minority party and then was elected to the National Assembly. “The people are so disappointed. They have no other way to express themselves.”

“Thousands of students are here to protest his educational policy,” says a teacher, Kim Haeng Suu, accompanying other teachers and students from a nearby school. “The students say they have no voice in the system, and he only cares about education for the rich people.”

…they castigate Lee and his ministers and advisers for the arrogance they perceive in his support of the chaebol, or conglomerates, which dominate the Korean economy and to appointments of rich and sell-connected favorites to high positions.

“These people came here to say something against the policy of mad cow,” says Kang Jae Myung, an information technology consultant, joining the protest, he says, as “a spectator,” but “the issue grows bigger and bigger.”

Basically, “the Korean people are very disappointed with what the Lee Myung Bak regime has done,” he says. “The economy is getting worse, and he helps the big corporations, not these people here with less money and less power.” Christian Science Monitor

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