EXCUUUSE ME, but isn't this one of the countries that eats rats, snakes, guts, bugs, etc, and they are afraid of some good KANSAS BEEF??
South Korea, U.S. to resume beef talks
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea will resume beef trade talks with the United States this week to resolve a nagging dispute that has hindered approval of a separate free-trade agreement.
The U.S. has demanded South Korea fully open its beef market, saying American beef has been certified as safe by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.
But South Korea has insisted it will maintain quarantine regulations, citing concerns over mad cow disease.
The talks, scheduled to begin Friday in South Korea, come six months after earlier negotiations failed to reach an agreement. The South Korean Agriculture Ministry did not say how long the talks would last.
The U.S. says a resolution of the beef dispute is needed for congressional leaders in Washington to back a wider free-trade agreement with South Korea that was signed last year.
South Korea agreed in 2006 to import boneless U.S. meat from cattle less than 30 months old -- believed to be safer from the disease -- partially lifting an almost three-year ban imposed on American beef after the brain-wasting disease was discovered in the U.S.
South Korea was the third-largest foreign market for American beef before it banned imports in December 2003.