Remember the mad protests about American beef in South Korea? The mass hysteria of biblical proportions (”cats and dogs living together!”) that gripped the country and led to its otherwise sensible president to apologize regarding the “hurried” negotiation over resumption of the importation of American beef?

Well, now, apparently, American beef is welcome in ROK again:

Now, in the winter of their consumerism, the people have changed their mind.

Low-priced U.S. beef has appeared in supermarkets here in recent days, after a decision by three major retailers to start selling it again, and the reaction has been brisk business and no political fuss. Fifty tons of U.S. beef disappeared from shelves the first day it was offered for sale.

“It is our national character to get upset easily and then to forget all about it,” said Park Eun-ah, 48, a romance novelist who lives in Seoul and Paris.

I don’t think this kind of mass emotional seesaw is uniquely Korean. Why, I recall just a few of years ago when President Bush was re-elected with an exclamation point and was hailed by most Republicans as one of the greats. Well, it took only a couple of years for that to change rather drastically.

The public is a fickle beast, especially in today’s 24-hour media cycle that can induce hysteria quickly. I suppose one idiosyncracy about South Korea, if there is any, is that the public mood swings are reflected in its rowdy “demo” culture of mass protests. We Americans largely outgrew that by the Seventies (except on some college campuses), but in Korea where the memory of mass demonstrations bringing down military dictatorships is vivid, the mass protest culture is still alive and kicking.

Still, American beef must now do what some American tourists and expatriates did during the rough times in Korea – pretend to be Canadians or, in the case of the beef, Australian:

Shin Mija, 40 was caught in the middle. She was happy to be able to buy U.S. beef again but said her two teenagers would not eat it. During the spring and summer, she said, her children had been convinced by protesters that American beef would give them mad cow disease. Shin bought it anyhow.

She said she would tell her kids it came from Australia.