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July 12, 2008
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| Police yesterday released documents produced by anti-U.S. beef rally organizers that appear to show that the rallies were organized with the intent to bring down the Lee Myung-bak administration. Police raided the office of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement and confiscated documents that were made during its meetings. The documents recount discussions between leaders of various civic groups on the direction of anti-U.S. beef demonstrations. The leaders included those from the Democratic Labor Party, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, South Korean Federation of University Student Councils and Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement. At a meeting, a leader put it simply: “If Lee Myung-bak and the United States do not make a serious mistake, we have no choice but to wait until 2010. We need to foster a strong political opposition front by combining anti-American sentiments and President Lee’s faulty policies.” “If we merely focus on demanding U.S. beef renegotiations, it can swamp our real intention, which is to bring down the Lee Myung-bak administration.” Furthermore, there are suggestions in the papers of intent to paralyze downtown streets by encouraging citizens to participate in candlelight vigils at night and mobilizing their groups’ activists during the day. Another leader suggested a week-long demonstration to swamp the downtown core of the city with demonstrators. There were ideas thrown about by demonstration organizers to tie the South Korea-U.S. alliance issue into the protests. “The moment we suggest why the Lee Myung-bak administration cannot renegotiate the beef deal, we can start to bring up our discontent towards the South Korea-U.S. alliance.” Police believe the demonstrations started as peaceful candlelight vigils and later escalated into something more. They also believe the demonstrations were masterminded from the beginning by members of various civic groups spearheaded by the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement. By Kang In-sik JoongAng Ilbo [enational@joongang.co.kr] |
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