South Korean students, parents with toddlers in tow, and union members took to the streets on Saturday in a massive protest against a government decision to resume imports of US beef that they see as dangerous.
The organisers of the candle-lit vigil said 100,000 people were at the rally that stopped traffic on the 16-lane central Seoul main thoroughfare, after more than a week of daily protests against President Lee Myung-bak. South Korea, once the third-largest importer of US beef until a 2003 outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States, said it would start quarantine inspections of US beef, a move that opens its market fully for the first time in four years.
College student Ju Ha-na, 24, who took part in a head-shaving ceremony in protest with 19 others, said the people at the protest were not only alarmed by US beef. "Not just the beef deal, but the Lee Myung-bak government's policies are anti-working people and are not right," she said.
US and South Korean officials have said US beef is safe but that has not placated South Koreans. Several hundred people have been detained from the daily protests, but police have so far refrained from using full force to contain the crowd. Officials again ordered restraint on Saturday.
Under the deal to reopen its market, Seoul agreed with Washington to accept all cuts of beef from cattle of all ages, while other US trading partners such as Japan still will not do so because of concerns over mad cow disease.