SEOUL, South Korea -- Massive demonstrations have forced South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to renege on a trade agreement made with Washington in April. Lee had pledged to lift his country's five-year-old ban on American beef that was first imposed after an outbreak of mad cow disease in Washington state. For the past month, tens of thousands of South Koreans have held almost nightly candlelight vigils to express their opposition to the beef deal. They say Lee has put the nation's health at risk because too many restrictions were eased on cow parts that they think are more likely to transmit the brain-wasting virus. The demonstrators were spurred on by sensational media reports and Internet rumors that schoolchildren would be served unsafe cuts of beef and also that Koreans are genetically more susceptible to contracting mad cow disease than Americans. It's become a case of widespread hysteria.
South Korean Hysteria Over U.S. Beef Could Endanger Free Trade Agreement
