Beef Deal, Candlelight Vigils Causing Stress

The result of an opinion poll released yesterday said negotiations over resuming U.S. beef imports and candlelight vigils are stressing the Korean public.

In a survey of 728 adults, online job broker Saramin said 76.8 percent felt fatigue and stress due to news reports in the first half of the year.

Among the most stressful and annoying news were negotiations over the resumption of U.S. beef imports (36 percent); candlelight protests (19.7 percent); oil price hikes (10.6 percent); higher public service charges (6.6 percent); and falling stock prices (4.8 percent).

Next came the burning of Sungnyemun (3.9 percent); falling employment (3.8 percent), Korea`s large per capita financial burden (2.9 percent); and Japan’s claim to the Dokdo islets (2.5 percent).

On why they feel fatigue and anxiety over such news, respondents cited no easy solution (33.1 percent); consecutive happening of incidents (28.4 percent); "too ridiculous (17.2 percent)"; repeated news reports (14.5 percent) and causing direct damage (five percent).

hanwshin@donga.com