What's the beef with Seoul?

NEW YORK — At the outset of the violent protests in South Korea over imported beef from the United States, the entire Cabinet of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak offered to resign. Last week, Lee fired three of them. But beef, it turns out, represents just the tip of the iceberg of grievances against Lee. Only four months in office, his approval rating is down to single digits.

Lee won the December 2007 election with 48.7 percent of the vote, having run on the "747" platform, promising 7 percent annual GDP growth, per capita income of $40,000, and to make Korea the world's seventh largest economy (up from 13th currently). During his inauguration speech, he vowed to revive the economy, strengthen relations with the U.S., and deal with North Korea.

So what went wrong?