VOA标准英语2008年-Bowing to Protests, S. Korea Imposes New Condit

By Kurt Achin
Seoul
03 June 2008

South Korea is seeking to ease some domestic irritation 1, with a move that could complicate 2 American-Korean trade relations. Seoul is amending 3 its promise to resume U.S. beef imports by imposing 4 new trade conditions aimed at placating 5 political critics of the South Korean president. VOA Seoul Correspondent Kurt Achin reports.

In what he described as a "humble 6 acceptance of the people's will," South Korean Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun announced a new set of limitations on plans to import U.S. beef.

He says South Korea has requested the American government stop exporting cattle aged 7 30 months or older, about which South Korean consumers have expressed the most anxiety. He says his ministry 8 will postpone 9 scheduled quarantine inspections 10 of American beef until the United States responds to the request.
　






South Korean members of Jellanamdo Provincial 11 Assembly are blocked by riot police officers as they try to march to the Presidential House in Seoul, South Korea, 03 June 2008

The move is a reaction to street protests which began weeks ago, opposing American beef imports. The demonstrations 12 have evolved into much broader, grassroots criticism of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's leadership style.

Two months after his February inauguration 13, Mr. Lee arranged a deal to fully 14 resume imports of virtually all cuts of U.S. beef. The imports were banned in 2003, after an American animal was found to have the fatal brain condition known as "mad cow disease." It is theoretically possible for humans to contract a version of the disease by eating tainted 15 meat.

Mr. Lee's import resumption deal, clinched 16 during an April summit with President Bush, fulfilled a promise made more than a year earlier by Mr. Lee's predecessor 17. It also followed a ruling by a United Nations organization, backing Washington's assertion that U.S. beef is safe.

Nonetheless, many South Koreans saw President Lee's decision to resume the imports as too sudden, too wide-ranging - and too dismissive of public sentiment.

Protests that began as quiet candlelight vigils, last month, have gradually grown louder and more violent. Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered almost nightly in downtown Seoul, blocking major traffic arteries 18 and leading to hundreds of arrests.

Although protesters are unable to cite a single confirmed case of a human contracting brain disease from consuming U.S. beef, their gatherings 19 have served as a magnet for groups with a host of grievances 20 against the South Korean president.

American officials have repeatedly refused to re-negotiate U.S. beef imports and are unlikely to agree to Seoul's new beef import conditions. Analysts 21 warn the escalating 22 beef dispute could endanger ratification 23 of the major trade deal the two countries, signed last year.