S. Korea reports progress in beef talks with US

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-20  |     ONLINE EDITION

SOUTH Korea and the United States have made considerable progress in defusing a political crisis in Seoul over renewing imports of American beef, officials said today.

The two sides "neared a result that can satisfy each other," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the talks between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and his US counterpart Susan Schwab ended in Washington.

South Korea will announce details Saturday after Kim reports to President Lee Myung-bak and consults with related ministries, said ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young.

"We have made good progress this week and are close to reaching a mutually agreeable path forward," Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the US trade representative, said in Washington.

The announcement came a day after President Lee pledged to keep US beef out of South Korea unless Washington limits exports to younger cattle, considered less at risk for mad cow disease.

In a nationally televised address yesterday, Lee said he will "ensure that US beef older than 30 months will not be put on our dinner tables as long as people don't want it."

The South Korean leader said he told US President George W. Bush earlier this month that South Korea "would not be able to import US beef" if his demands to block beef from older cattle were not accepted.

South Korea suspended imports of US beef after the first American case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003, closing what had been the third-largest foreign market.

Lee also apologized to the South Korean people over his April decision to allow resumed imports of American beef -- made just hours before he met Bush in Washington -- saying he thought it would help passage of a broader free-trade deal with the United States.

"I and the government are deeply sorry" for not caring about what the people wanted, he said.