South Korean government rejects mounting calls to re-negotiate US beef deal

A senior South Korean official rejected mounting calls Tuesday for the government to scrap an agreement to resume U.S. beef imports.

South Korean opposition lawmakers and civic activists have urged the government to heed public concerns about the safety of U.S. beef, calling for an renegotiation of the deal Seoul signed with Washington last month.

However, Min Dong-seok, South Korea's chief trade negotiator on the issue, rejected any such move.

"The negotiation is over and it's impossible to re-negotiate," Min told reporters in a nationally televised press conference.

Other senior agriculture officials and medical experts later told the press conference U.S. beef is safe to eat.

South Korea agreed last month to reopen its market for U.S. beef, scrapping nearly all quarantine regulations previously insisted to guard against mad cow disease. The deal, which came just hours before President Lee Myung-bak held his first summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, was widely seen as a concession aimed at getting the United States to approve a broader trade deal.

Mad cow fears have spread quickly among Korean public since last week after a popular current affairs TV program questioned the safety of American beef.

Thousands of activists, students and ordinary citizens staged candlelight vigils in Seoul on Friday and Saturday, criticizing the government for making too many concessions and demanding it cancel the deal.

About 1,000 people gathered in central Seoul on Tuesday night, holding candles and chanting slogans such as "let's send mad cows to Cheong Wa Dae." Cheong Wa Dae is the Korean name of the country's presidential office.

Lee's popularity has declined amid the latest spat.

A telephone survey of 700 adults published by the Seoul-based polling agency Realmeter last week showed Lee's approval ratings plunged to 35.1 percent, down 12.1 percent from the previous week. The agency said the survey's margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

An Internet-based petition calling for Lee's parliamentary impeachment has also collected about 1.2 million signatures as of Tuesday evening.

Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan Tuesday accused some Internet sites of spreading false allegations on the safety of U.S. beef.

The main opposition United Democratic Party said it would push for a parliamentary resolution calling for a renegotiation of the deal. A parliamentary committee is to hold a hearing on the issue Wednesday.

Seoul suspended U.S. beef imports in late 2003 after mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state. Restricted imports resumed in April last year, but were put on hold again in October when a shipment arrived containing banned animal parts.

Imports of U.S. beef are expected to resume in mid-May and expand in stages.

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Associated Press writer Jae-hyun Jeong in Seoul contributed to this report.