Posted: 5.37pm Tuesday 5 August 2008
International
South Koreans protest at George Bush
Thousands of protesters greeted George Bush on his arrival in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday of this week.
Twenty thousand police were deployed to protect the US president from demonstrators.
The protesters are angry over the South Korean government’s decision to resume beef imports from the US – despite fears the beef may be contaminated with BSE (mad cow disease).
Over a million people have marched against the imports.
The protest was also over Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and continuing threats to attack Iran.
President Lee-Myung bak described the alliance with the US as “the backbone of South Korean diplomacy”.
South Korea has committed troops to Iraq and Bush will try to persuade Lee to send greater numbers to Afghanistan to help deal with the growing resistance to the occupation there.
“Obviously we’d like to see a greater role for South Koreans in Afghanistan, if the South Korean people are willing to move in that direction,” Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council’s senior director for Asian affairs, told reporters on Air Force One.
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