American Beef AKA Migook Sogogi

I seems that news of the beef protests in Korea have finally made it to America. For the last... gosh, I think its almost a month now... Korean people have been gathering by city hall, almost every night, to hold candle light protests... this gives me the chance to teach my students the word 'vigil.'
This picture is of a pretty big banner that was across the street from my hogwon (language school.) It shows a petrified Korean woman (carrying a designer bag I'm sure) watching as a giant ship carrying evil looking cow from America with poison symbols stamped on their muzzles. I thought it was pretty funny, and cute in a cartoonish sort of way. I also want to point out that my hogwon is no where near city hall, and they people who put up this banner have several others and are protesting at least 2 or 3 things.... its pretty interesting... oh and they are also living on the street in tents that they have outfitted to be like Korean houses... I will try and snap some pictures, but I'm afraid they might not like it.

I know there is a lot of miss information in the news, so I thought I would jot down what I know about this situation.
- Korean people love beef.
- Korean people use the bones of animals to cook lots of soup (they eat soup at least once or twice a day)
- Korea used to be one of the biggest importers of American beef
- Korea suspended American beef imports when a cow we bought from Canada turned out to have mad cow.
- Korea restarted the beef imports last fall (and Korean shoppers were elated!) only to suspend imports once again soon after spinal fragments were found in the shipment.
- The mad cow virus is found in the nervous tissue, that means the brain and spinal cord.
- Some people think that cows killed after 30 months of age have a greater chance of having contracted the mad cow virus.
- There is no limit on the age of slaughter for current beef imports from America.
- The current deal for beef imports was agreed on by the previous Korean President, Mr. Roh. Korean people were unhappy with his efforts to bring NK and SK together through free aid and Roh's inability to reinvigorate the Korean economy.
- Everyone thought the new president, Mr. Lee, would do wonders for the Korean economy since he is a previous mayor of the capital city Seoul, and he was a CEO at Hyundai.
- No one likes Mr. Lee now and they wish they didn't vote for him because he is corrupt and only cares about rich people (no surprise)
- The agreement between Japan and the US for beef import/export has a 30 month limit for the age of slaughter.
- Japan and Korea have a really dicey past that goes back longer than most people could imagine.
- If the trade agreement between the US and Korea is reopened for negotiations to put a limit on the slaughter age of beef then other aspects of the deal will also change. This could have negative impacts on the small electronics, semiconductor and auto industry which is really the bread and butter of this country.
- All those "riot cops" that beat up civilians are actually just young guys (between the age of 22 and 26 mostly) who are serving out their mandatory military service. They would rather be: at home, out drinking, or protesting with the other Koreans.
- Korea actually has a long history of people being ignored by the government, mostly because the government was either a king or a dictator or another country for most of history until about 20 some years ago. So, they don't like it when their "democratic" government ignores them.

Ok, so thats pretty much everything I "know"... just because I know it doesn't mean its true... look it up if you doubt me (and you should) and email me if you find any errors :) Take what I gave you and draw your own conclusions... oh, and just so you know, you might actually have more information about this topic than the typical Korean person... don't you feel smart?