Mad Cow Concerns Keep South Koreans Demonstrating Against Resumption Of Beef Imports From U.S.

South Korea (AHN) - For the second week in a row, tens of thousands of South Koreans attended weekend demonstrations is cities across the country to protest the government's decision to resume imports of beef from the U.S.

Korea banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 out of fear of importing beef with mad cow disease. But in mid-April U.S. Pres. George W. Bush in a meeting with Korean Pres. Lee Myung-bak reached an agreement to lift almost all restrictions on importing American beef to South Korea, according to Wall Street Journal reports.

However, South Korea has delayed sending its inspectors to the U.S. to check American slaughterhouses to see if they can produce beef that meets South Korea's sanitary conditions, officials said Sunday according to Yonhap news reports.

"The dispatch of inspectors was put off due to differences on the issue of scheduling their visits," a government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "However, inspectors will be able to depart for the U.S. within one to two weeks."

The government has been accused of rushing to begin importing American beef again without taking the safety concerns of Korean consumers into consideration.

Concerns over the safety of U.S. beef among Korean citizens is running high and threatens to derail ratification of a free trade agreement between the two nations.

Main opposition United Democratic Party threatened on Sunday not to discuss ratification of that agreement during the current National Assembly unless the import of beef from the U.S. was renegotiated.

The agreement reached between the countries last month allows most U.S. beef cuts, including ribs, T-bone steaks and intestines, to be imported, but not specific products such as a part of the small intestine, and tonsils because they carry the greatest risk of transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy - known as mad cow disease - to humans.

Before the mad cow scare in 2003 South Korea imported about 70 percent of its beef from America.