Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiknkorea]

Here is the Herald story on the good times yesterday. It said hundreds of activists were involved, but I read on a different site it was around 16,000. I guess that included the HiSeoul crowd who were sent away.


http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/05/04/200905040008.asp

[4seasons]

Do the Hi Seoul festivities during the continue? Or are those canceled as well??

[Forward Observer]

The protesters purposely mixed in with the hi Seoul parade crowds to the point where the police couldn't tell them apart. The police asked the hi Seoul crowd to go home. Korea sparkling.

[wylies99]

What was the point of this? Just to start trouble?

[Bibbitybop]

[justaguy]

[Smee]

A round-up of pics here, as well as links from last year:
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2009/05/protests-against-us-beef-disrupt.html

Galleries:
http://photo.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/03/2009050300461.html

http://photo.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/02/2009050200441.html

And a bunch more from the Chosun Ilbo (just browse the galleries above the pictures).

Tried and true tactics it looks like. Attack the riot cops---who generally just stand there and take the abuse---then bitch and moan when they get arrested or hit with fire hoses, and then run to Amnesty about human rights violations.

[kiknkorea]

[Robot_Teacher]

Yep, I was there, but only for a short time as it's dumb to hang around for very long when you see instability and hostilities. When I asked what happened, I was told by a group of 4 foreigners that it was about the president looking to take freedom of speech; not beef protests like a year ago. I fled through a subway expecting for riots to break out when things got weird and all these storm troopers hastily showed up and blockading off areas with the festivities obviously canceled. It was like a massive WTF? going on.

Had we'd been reading the US Army Stars and Stripes news, we'd known Friday that this was going to happen on Saturday. It reported that protests with anti-American sentiments were planned and for Americans to avoid central Seoul.

It's not that Korea doesn't like Americans as they do in fact prefer American English teachers and enjoy the military protection services we've been providing for over 40 years, it's the American beef imports threatening the livelihood of domestic Hanwoo beef producers and sellers. Anyhow, I'm sure Korean consumers are enjoying as well as fattening up on the American imports, becuase Korean beef is like 3X to 4X as expensive such in Emart. Korean domestic producers charge way too much for their food products to compete in the global economy. I only paid 3,000 won for one of their apples, becuase it's the only apple available.

Is Korea subsidizing or socializing the domestic beef producers losing on account of American beef imports like the way Korean government is subsidizing domestic rice producers losing to imported cheaper rice? As Korea opens up to foreign import products, it's government is handing out subsidies to domestic producers to offset their losses though this is not a long term solution and Korean producers are going to have to accept lower profits by lowering their prices to international norms.