Korean activists to protest Bush’s visit
Korea Times | 08-05-2008
Korean Activists to Protest Bush’s Visit
Seoul’s streets will turn into an amalgam of contradictory rallies on Tuesday, with civic activists planning a large candlelight protest against visiting U.S. President George W. Bush aside pro-U.S. demonstrations led by local Christians and conservatives.
Police have been ordered to be on their highest alert, and have mobilized their full force of 24,000 to guard Bush and quell potential violence.
Bush earlier postponed his trip to South Korea in July, amid an escalating public uproar over an agreement Seoul signed with Washington to lift a ban on U.S. beef imports. Thousands of Koreans opposed to the deal took to the streets almost daily in protest, but numbers have receded significantly since the meat hit local store shelves in early July.
Left-wing activists are hoping to use Bush’s two-day visit to press for a renegotiation of the beef deal and reignite the candlelight protest movement. The White House has suggested that President Lee Myung-bak and Bush dine on U.S. beef at Lee’s residence, an apparent move to assuage South Korean concerns over mad cow disease.
"To the chief administrator in charge of the beef agreement, we will express our position, in a peaceful way, that the Korean people cannot accept (the deal) because of the risk of mad cow disease," said Jang Dae-hyun, a spokesman for the People’s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease.
The protest will also raise calls to nullify a bilateral free trade agreement and withdraw Korean troops from Iraq, as Seoul officials speculate Bush may ask Lee to increase S. Korean troop levels in Iraq, where about 1,000 Korean soldiers are stationed on a rehabilitation mission. The two leaders will meet on Wednesday
before Bush leaves for Thailand and Beijing, where he is to attend.
Organizers expect about 10,000 people will participate in the candlelight rally starting at 7 p.m. Local college students also planned a protest near the U.S. embassy earlier in the day.
Seeking to counterbalance anti-U.S. protests, local war veterans, right-wing activists and conservative Christians have planned their own rallies to welcome Bush. (Yonhap)
