SEOUL, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- South Korea Wednesday rejected a request by the United States to allow U.S. beef with bone fragments to be shipped to the country.
Seoul's Agriculture Ministry agreed in 2006 to resume imports on condition the meat is boneless and from cattle younger than 30 months of age. But Seoul banned three U.S. beef shipments due to the presence of small bone fragments
At the beef talks that resumed in Seoul, the United States requested that South Korea import "bone-in" beef, depending on the size of the bones. American negotiators also asked South Korea to inspect the beef shipments on a sampling-based quarantine system, not on a system probing all products.
"South Korea's stance on only allowing boneless beef into the country remains unchanged, yet there is room for ideas to be exchanged on how to handle packages found containing bone fragments," Vice Agriculture Minister Park Hae-sang told reporters.
