South Korean Internet catches "mad cow madness"

By Jon Herskovitz and Rhee So-eui - Analysis

SEOUL (Reuters) - Angry South Korean teenagers, Internet-savvy and armed with gadget-filled mobile phones, have helped turn a new conservative president's triumph into crisis and possibly changed the way the country does politics.

President Lee Myung-bak, hardly in office three months, has been caught badly off-guard by the fury swirling in the world's most wired country, which began with a flurry of gripes about importing "dangerous" U.S. beef and turned into a blizzard of complaints against his brief rule.

"Maybe, we have been experimenting with a new type of politics without even knowing it," said sociology professor Chun Sang-chin, of Sogang University.

"The Internet has appeared to many people as the only platform to achieve democracy," he said.

When Lee won the presidency in December, it was by the biggest margin in a democratic South Korean leadership election.

By the time the anger over beef had mushroomed into the biggest street protests the capital has seen in 20 years, the former construction company boss had became the most unpopular president at the start of their term that the country has seen. His approval rating now is barely scraping 20 percent.

Social and political commentators said allegations that an April deal to import more U.S. beef put society at risk of mad cow disease tore through the Internet and on SMS messages so fast that they became fact before the government or mainstream media had a chance to weigh in.

One early claim, which appeared to win wide credibility in one of the world's most educated societies, was that the homogenous Korean race had a gene which made it particularly susceptible to the disease.