SKorea reports progress in resolving crisis over U.S. beef imports

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea - 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 Friday.

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 U.S. 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 U.S. trade representative, said in Washington.

The announcement came a day after President Lee pledged to keep U.S. 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 Thursday, Lee said he will "ensure that U.S. 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 U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this month that South Korea "would not be able to import U.S. beef" if his demands to block beef from older cattle were not accepted.

South Korea suspended imports of U.S. 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.

It was Lee's second apology in less than a month over the beef debacle, which has forced all of his top aides and the entire Cabinet to offer to resign and led to weeks of protests. Lee took office in February after a landslide election win but has seen his popularity plummet over the beef issue.

The beef agreement sparked anti-government protests that climaxed last week with a candlelight rally that drew some 80,000 people. But the scale of rallies has since dropped as the government began seeking to limit the import deal.

© The Canadian Press, 2008