Mass Protests in South Korea Over Free Trade Deal

(LinkAsia: December 9, 2011) Large protests have erupted in Seoul, led by small business owners and farmers, against the South Korean government's Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Contributor: Yoo Eun Lee, Global Voices Online

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News & Politics

Tags:

• LinkAsia
• Global Voices Online
• South Korea
• Free Trade Agreement
• United States
• Protest
• Seoul

[CappitranoBellephant]

Holy shit their protest kick the shit out of our protests. All it took was one corrupt free trade policy for them to start shit up and in the US we had to wait until people started going homeless LOL. On top of that THEY are the ones launching tear gas at their officials instead of being hit with tear gas. I've never said this before in my life but Korea has the right idea here.

[navtel]

america won't be happy until it destroys or destablilizes all countries.. .. lynch the parliament of S.korea. anyone believing there is democracy are delusional.

[jaeknyc]

Also they have more people like ron paul and kucinich in politics but with short tempers. Im a korean american living in ny.

[jaeknyc]

Imo and i say agen imo koreans get riled up like that because they are a small country like israel and have been enslaved before by japanese and kp(korean pride) kicks in real fast and they get defensive. Also one thing u must know about koreans is that they complain and protest quite often. Also the scene with the tear gas in parliament, koreans have short tempers and are emotional people, its in their blood (ever watch a kor drama? Mostly because of the history of kor). Also they have more pe

[canyouguesswhy]

You have to understand why Koreans don't want to enforce FTA.

The poisonous clauses don't applied in FTA between developed countries.

Also, on FTA between Korea and EU, they didn't talk anything about poisonous clauses.

So it has a lot of contradiction, but some rich people want to enforce FTA for their benefits.

[canyouguesswhy]

It is very unfair to Korea. But rich people in Korea, include Lee-myung-bak(the president of Korea) push ahead with FTA only for their benefits. They don't think about normal citizens' disadvantages.

[canyouguesswhy]

Americans have to know what is bad about FTA to Koreans.

There is an poisonous clauses in FTA

It is very unfair for Korea. So it means America want to get a lot of benefits from Korea even if Korea's economy became crushed.

The most best point for poisonous clauses' bad thing is that American company which invested to Korea can sue Korea for their disadvantages to the tertiary organizations. It incapacitate Korean laws. Then, strong American companies would 100% win on the trial.

[tehatemachine]

@avecgloire And the people working for those companies based int he U.S that gain from revenue, Spend theirs on something else like maybe a samsung TV, Or other products in return. That currency doesn't stay put like everyone things. Trade is exchanging something for something else.