S. Korea Delays Dropping Ban On U.S. Beef

Under Huge Pressure From Protesters, Officials Decide To Delay Final Step To Re-Allow Imports

(CBS/AP)  South Korea says it will delay the resumption of U.S. beef imports.

Agriculture Ministry spokesman Kim Hyun-soo says his ministry decided to delay the final administrative step needed for imports to begin.

He offered no further details Monday.

The move comes after tens of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets over the weekend to protest the government's decision to implement an agreement with the United States to resume imports.

U.S. beef has been banned by South Korea for most of the past 4 years over fears of mad cow disease.

Police clashed with elements of a crowd estimated at nearly 40,000 who protested into early Sunday in downtown Seoul against the plans to resume imports of U.S. beef.

Water cannons were fired at some of the protesters who were blocked by police buses from a road leading to the presidential Blue House, prompting angry reaction from demonstrators.

Several protesters injured by the water cannon were taken to hospital.

A crowd estimated by police at 38,000 people filled a plaza in front of city hall. Protesters lit candles, waved placards and chanted slogans criticizing President Lee Myung-bak.

The rally was largely peaceful, with most protesters dispersing voluntarily. But sporadic clashes between some protesters and police continued into the early hours of Sunday.

South Korea agreed in April to reopen what was formerly the third-largest overseas market for U.S. beef. It had been shut most of the past 4 1/2 years following the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state in 2003.

That deal, coupled with some sensational media reports, sparked fears of mad cow disease and triggered protests calling for scrapping or renegotiating the agreement.

Students, labor union members, office workers were among those who filled the plaza, which was surrounded by special buses used by riot police.

Anger intensified starting last Thursday, when the government announced it would implement the April 18 agreement with Washington and resume beef imports within days despite widespread public opposition.

The beef issue has emerged as the biggest domestic challenge for Lee's fledgling administration. The former construction industry chief executive took office Feb. 25 on a vow to boost the economy and is approaching his 100th day in office.

Though his margin of victory in December's election was the largest ever in South Korea, his handling of the beef agreement has seen his popularity plummet to levels near 20 percent.

Protesters claim Lee was too quick to concede to U.S. demands for access to South Korea's market to win favor with Washington and garner support in Congress for ratification of a separate free trade agreement.

Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The U.S. banned recycled feeds in 1997.

In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.

[honestabe8]

Don''t have a cow, man.

[teupel]

Anyway, brianbwb! I am not afraid of North Korean as you mentioned previously. Read it carefully before you reply!!

[teupel]

"They are not as afraid of the North Koreans as you are."???

I do not think America is much better than North Korea when I think about what Americans have done not only in Korea but also in other parts of the world.

Also, I seriously doubt that what they did at the time of Korean War and after was based on humanitarian conscience.

[brianbwb-2009]

"As you wished, stop Hyundai exporting its cars. But pull all the US army ASAP and stop dumping all the outdated garbage weapons on S.K. as well. Let''''s see.... what will happen... and what you have to do with the overplus soldiers and garbage weapons..." Posted by teupel

Perhaps you haven''t gotten the memo, Korea has wanted the US out for some time now. The property value of the US base in Seoul is far greater than the economic benefit from the US base being there, property developers are even now pressuring the Korean government to at least relocate the base, if not get rid of it altogether. They are not as afraid of the North Koreans as you are.

[brianbwb-2009]

"For some reason our country just can''t see it." Posted by SharnCedar

So having them eat contaminated garbage from the US that you yourself wouldn''t even eat, is your idea of a good global citizen?

Riight, even miscreants like you shouldn''t be eating garbage that some inspector was bribed to pass.

Try this question, if the price of USDA beef in the US is higher than in Korea, (which it is) why would the beef industry want to sell it cheaper than they can in the US?

[fireceos]

LOL...I meant ''higher prices.'' I was reading elqana''s post. Sorry, lost my English for a sec.

[fireceos]

We don''t want to export our beef, not right now. It would create more competition and hire prices here in the US not to mention all the fuel we would be wasting sending it overseas. The US would be irresponsible to export any food right now. Stop exporting foods! Help disaster victims, perfectly fine, (if the government will let you) but we need our own food here.

[volkswagen6]

Soon it won''t matter whether the government allows American beef in or not. The frenzy over the beef issue has most of the major outlets for beef scared and declaring that they won''t sell it. Lotte Mart, Emart, Burger King, etc.

[kiloaink]

sometimes getting bored of seeing some egocentric people like ''demslie'' connecting anything happening outside U.S. to the typical "I Hate America" statement, I sometimes wonder how storongly paranoid they are. Not everything happening outside U.S. is about YOU, YOU and YOU, demslie. this is about the stupidity of the Korean government which is dumb enough to import the parts of beef which Americans are NOT allowed to eat by Law.
Koreans just don''t want to buy and eat what people in another country throw out as trash.
demslie may also have a wrong idea that America has the most strict meat inspecttions of any country on earth.^^
Why don''t you check out the inspection system in japan? you will have a new insight about the meat inspections.
gmcnally2 said that the people who stand to lose $ are behind the "so-called" sensationalism in Korea.
then the people behind it have to be Australians in the beef industry. the beef which will be replaced by U.S. beef is from there.

[sharncedar]

This is how other countries practice "free trade". They cheat, in other words. "Free trade" with South Korea was a huge mistake, they are taking us for billions every year and in return refuse to open their markets to any US products with these phony government/industry supported "protests".

This is nto just one country, EVERY country in Asia is cheating the US in a similar manner, talking about "free trade" but playing games to prevent US imports from competng fairly. Everywhere from India to Japan to of course China to Indonesia these cheating worthless enemies of America are lying, stealing, and refusing to bhave as good world citizens. This is the ethicsof that reigon, whic is thievery. Wishing they were good people won;t make it so, they aren''t, they are born cheaters without any decency, they will never practice "free trade" it is a joke to them. Ideals are a big joke to them, they have no wish to make the world a better place just to steal every scrap they can steal. They are not Europeans, they don''t have European values or decency. For some reason our country just can''tsee it.