Inspectors Put US Beef Imports on Hold

Korean authorities have suspended approval of the U.S. beef processing facilities due to safety problems found there.

As a result, beef imports from the U.S. are likely to be postponed until next month.

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQ) under the wing of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) said that the approval requested by the U.S on these 37 facilities would be called off.

Kang Moon-Il, chairman of the NVRQ service, said, “Most of the facilities were found to be safe, but some fell short of the sanitary requirements. For instance, they did not separate the domestic beef from foreign ones and used the same tools to slaughter cows under 30 months old and those over 30 months old.”

The MAF plans to call on the U.S. government to resolve the problems in accordance with the beef safety agreement between Korea and the U.S. in January.

Sun-Woo Kim sublime@donga.com