By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Thousands of people in the country's major cities took to the streets Friday protesting the government's decision to resume imports of U.S. beef after a five-year ban.
More than 10,000 people participated in a candlelight vigil in Seoul, according to police, which was organized by a coalition of 1,500 civic groups and Internet-based communities in what was the biggest gathering since the government announced plans to relax the import restrictions on U.S. beef. Organizers of the rally claimed that the crowd numbered closer to 30,000.
Protestors urged the Lee Myung-bak government to take a harder look at the health concerns on U.S. beef from cattle older than 30 months, which is believed to be more at risk from BSE, commonly called ``mad cow" disease.
Similar rallies were also held in more than 10 towns and cities across the country, including Incheon, Suwon, Daejeon, Busan and Jeonju.
At the same time, members of hundreds of conservative organizations also held rallies in support of the government in Seoul, claiming left-leaning organizations are instigating the vigil against U.S. beef imports.
To ease public concerns, the government has reversed its earlier stance and pledged to suspend imports if a case of mad cow disease is detected in the United States and possibly could seek revision of a Korea-U.S. agreement in such as case.
However, the assurances proposed by the government failed to calm the protesters.
Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a central organizing group in the campaign, stressed that nobody encouraged people to participate in the movement and every individual voluntarily joined including a large number of young students.
Civic groups criticized education authorities for banning students from participating in the campaign. In a media conference, Chung Jin-hwa, chairperson of the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers' Union, requested the Education Ministry to give up its plan to distribute materials to schools that say American beef is safe.
Otherwise, she warned that the group will distribute their own materials showing danger of mad cows. Commenting on the remarks by Seoul's top educator Kong Jeong-taek that some teachers in the group are encouraging students to participate in the rally, Chung said, ``Kong defamed the teachers' organization and he should take responsibility for his words.''
In addition, she pledged to request heads of each school promise that they will not provide U.S. beef with a possibility of containing mad cow diseases to the school restaurants.
Internet cafe members, professors' groups and some doctors said that they will fight against the government until the beef deal between the two countries is scrapped.
Korea agreed with the U.S. last month to lift almost all restrictions on American beef imports, which were imposed in late 2003 after the first of its three mad cow cases was confirmed in the state of Washington.
The agreement, unveiled on the eve of Lee's first summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, was largely considered as Seoul's concession to get a bilateral free trade agreement passed in the U.S. Congress.