AP reporter Kelly Olsen writes an ill-informed story about street rallies in Korea.

We’re disappointed over a story on street rallies in Korea written by AP reporter Kelly Olsen. (It’s available here.)

Olsen starts by quoting a Korean housewife worrying about the possibility that her children could end up eating beef infected with mad cow disease at a restaurant, and immediately dismisses her worry as based on irrational fear by saying that the Americans “wolf down steaks and hamburgers produced from domestic cows.” This is really very irresponsible, sensational and/or ignorant reporting that pays no attention to several facts well-known to most Koreans.

First, the Korean government recently decided to allow imports of beef of cattle older than 30 months, which are known to have high risks of mad cow disease infection and which American do not “wolf down”. (Note that Japan, another major importer of U.S. beef, limits imports to beef of cattle slaughtered at 20 months and younger.) Olsen writes that “Rumors have circulated that U.S. meat packers plan to dump beef from older cows — considered at higher risk for mad cow — on the South Korean market.” But this is not a rumor. It’s what the new beef import agreement explicitly allows.

Secondly, Koreans have peculiar customs of eating almost all parts of cattle, including the brain, spinal cord, and intestine. World Organization for Animal Health (“OIE”) classify those parts of American and Canadian cattle aged 30 months or older as “Specified Risk Materials” (SRMs). The new Korea-U.S. beef import agreement orders removal of SRMs, but Koreans have good reason to doubt the rigor and safety of U.S. meat processing plants, as CNN recently reported.

Thirdly, The Korean government doesn’t have enough resources to make sure that American beef will not be sold as domestic beef. So it’s certain that some restaurants will do that to increase profit margin.

Given these facts, the Korean housewife’s worry about health risks posed by imports of U.S. beef to her children is fully understandable. If Olsen is so sure of the safety of U.S. beef, let him go eat a Korean-style beef soup made with the spinal cord of American downer cattle.

Another piece of evidence that Olsen did not do his homework before writing his article is his claim that many participants in the street rallies “have been university students, though the rallies have attracted others as well.” Everyone knows here in Korea that daily candlelight vigils were originally begun mostly by middle and high school girls, nicknamed “candlelight girls”. The vigils recently evolved into street rallies led by people in their thirties and forties. It’s only yesterday (May 29) that a large number of university students—about a thousand, still a fraction of the 20,000+ participants—started taking part.

At the end of his article Olsen quotes an editorial of Dong-a Ilbo, a rabid supporter of Lee’s heavily unpopular government. I wonder if Olsen’s ignorance and general incompetence as a reporter was spurred by reading too much of such trash dailies as Chosun Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, and Dong-a Ilbo (collectively known here as Cho-Joong-Dong). I’d recommend Olsen to read real newspapers like Kyunghyang and Hankyoreh if he wants to be informed of opinions of Korean people.