South Korea lifts ban on US beef imports

Protesters are sprayed with water cannons, as they try to march to the Presidential House, after a candlelight rally against U.S. imported beef in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, June 26, 2008. South Korea's government said Wednesday it will resume imports of American beef this week, hoping to move on from a crisis that battered the pro-U.S. administration with weeks of anti-government protests over food safety. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea lifted its ban on U.S. beef imports Thursday and the government, paralyzed by weeks of tumultuous demonstrations, warned it would not tolerate further protests.

Many South Koreans were furious with President Lee Myung-bak following an April deal that would have placed few restrictions on beef shipments, prompting concerns about the meat's safety and criticism that Lee made too many concessions to Washington.

The lifting of the ban came only after South Korea won extra safeguards on the shipments, limiting imports to beef from cattle younger than 30 months, believed less susceptible to mad cow disease.

Lee, who only took office in February, has replaced his top aides over the mishandling of the beef issue and his entire Cabinet has offered to resign.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said in a nationally televised statement that the government would not tolerate further illegal, violent protests against beef imports.

"Genuine candlelight protests have been turning into violent demonstrations calling for the ouster of a democratic government. That is a very regrettable thing," Han said. "We have to look at the future, not the past."

The Public Administration Ministry issued a legal notice Thursday morning on the U.S. import agreement, the final administrative step required to allow shipments to resume, said ministry official Chang Su-wan.

South Korea planned Friday to begin inspecting 5,300 tons of U.S. beef from earlier shipments held in customs storage facilities, according to the state-run National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service. The inspection could take some days and the beef could be on store shelves in about a week, agency spokesman Lee Byung-kwon said.

The agency had planned to start the inspections Thursday afternoon but postponed them due to protests by hundreds of labor union activists near 17 storage facilities across the country, Lee said.

Fresh U.S. beef shipments were expected to arrive in South Korea in about a month but major supermarkets have said they would not sell U.S. beef for the time being, citing public health concerns, according to media reports. Both the U.S. and South Korean governments insist the meat is safe.

The president, who has been humbled by the protests but recently shown increasing decisiveness in seeking to end the daily street rallies, said Thursday the country should now focus on boosting the economy -- his main campaign pledge that helped him win a landslide election victory last year.

"It's time for all of us to pull together our energies on the matter of reviving the economy," Lee told the Cabinet, according to his office. "If this situation continues, the common people will suffer damage."

Lee said if South Korea had failed to implement the beef deal, it would have lost its international credibility.

U.S. beef has been banned from South Korea for most of the past four and a half years, after the first case of mad cow disease in the U.S. was discovered in late 2003. Limited imports were briefly allowed last year and then were suspended again when banned materials, such as bones, were discovered in a shipment.

Demonstrations have dwindled in size since some 80,000 people gathered in central Seoul two weeks ago in the largest recent protest. On Wednesday night, about 5,000 people clashed with riot police in central Seoul, who used water cannons and fire extinguishers to repel the crowds, causing some injuries on both sides. About 140 protesters were arrested, police said.