ISDS Case Map
actions | resistance
A South Korean man, Lee Byong-Ryol, has died in hospital two weeks after setting himself ablaze in protest at a deal to resume US beef imports.
Korean public opinion wants a complete scrap of the April 18 beef deal with the US. The scale, intensity, and variety of participants in the street protests continue to grow. The mood is like a “Second June Struggle,” the June Struggle of 1987 having been a significant event in Korea's democracy movement. However some say that the May struggle for nullification of Beef deal has a lot of significant signs that differ from 1987 democracy struggle. These actions are creating New democracy.
A South Korean man set himself on fire early Thursday morning following a candlelight rally in central Seoul against the resumption of US beef imports. Kim, a day laborer, is in critical condition with severe burns to his body.
Rally organizers claimed as many as 1 million people could turn out nationwide for a scheduled rally on Tuesday, when the country marks the anniversary of a 1987 democratic uprising that led the then military regime to grant free elections, prompting ensuing political reforms.
The “People's Countermeasure Council against Full Resumption of Imports of US Beef Endangered with Mad Cow Disease,” an umbrella organization of Korean civic groups and cyber activists issued a statement on June 3 saying that the government "needs to decide for sure that it will fully and permanently prohibit the importation of beef [from US cattle over 30 months old], and demand that the US accept this.”
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions calls on the Korean government to repeal the US beef deal, stop the violence of the riot police and respect people's voices and rights.
South Korean police's brutal suppression toward ever-growing anti-US beef demonstrations by its citizen became the key issue as the confrontation between police and protesters got more fierce.
"Not just the beef deal, but the Lee Myung-bak government's policies are anti-working people and are not right," college student Ju Ha-na, who took part in a head-shaving ceremony in protest, said.
Tens of thousands of South Koreans are rallying Saturday against a plan to import US beef in the largest protest in weeks of anti-government demonstrations.
Farmers, professors and veterans, and citizens protest the government's announcement about U.S. beef import
