Protesters at a candlelight vigil on a street leading to the U.S. embassy and the presidential Blue House in central Seoul on Tuesday.
SEOUL: President Lee Myung Bak confronted the biggest challenge to his young and unpopular administration Tuesday as tens of thousands of demonstrators filled central Seoul to protest his agreement to resume imports of American beef and to denounce a broad range of other government policies.
The entire cabinet offered to resign as a way to help Lee find a way out of the crisis. It was unclear how many cabinet members Lee would replace, but he indicated that the changes could be substantial.
Lee's 107-day-old government has been beset by fears - partly stoked by media reports and his critics - that his agreement to reopen South Korea to American beef could expose the public to mad cow disease.
In a way, lifting the import ban on American beef was a long overdue action that Seoul had promised to take once the World Organization for Animal Health ruled American beef safe, as it did last September.
But until Lee, politicians here had shunned taking the political risk because, among left-leaning or nationalistic young South Koreans, the issue has become a test of whether Seoul can stand up to Washington.
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