But it has also had more ambiguous effect, because of the sheer violence and disruptivenes of many student demonstrations and their frequent lack of clear objective. In the summer of 1997, for example, many South Koreans were repelled when a policeman was set upon in student riots and burned and trampled to death in a maul - hardly what the brave idealistic struggles of gilded youth are supposed to be about. When the trial came and the two men were sentenced to long terms in prison, students began to demonstrate over the Hanbo Steel scandal which implicated President Kim Young Sam's son and several of the president's aides. Then they moved onto protests about a rise in school registration fees, and finally to a new series of labour laws that the government has introduced to try and curb union power. North Korea has always taken advantage of southern student protests in propaganda.
Student riots run along well oiled grooves.
Everyone expects student riots, no matter what the cause. But South Korean history has shown more than once in the recent past that if popular dissent grows to critical levels as a result of economic belt-tightening, it could be the student movement that will set the unrest alight.