hankyoreh

at the offices of People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy

By Kim Yang-joong, medical correspondent

Civic groups and opposition parties responded to the fourth BSE discovery in the US by urging an immediate halt to US beef imports and renegotiation of the import conditions.

Groups, including the People’s Countermeasure Council against Mad Cow Disease expert advisory council and the Korean Alliance Against KORUS FTA, held a press conference Thursday afternoon at Neutinamu Hall in People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy’s offices in the Tongin neighborhood of Seoul’s Jongno district, where they urged the the government to carry out its promise after the 2008 candlelight vigils to immediately halt beef imports if BSE was discovered in the US.

During the press conference, Park Sang-pyo, policy chief for Veterinarian Solidarity for Public Health, quoted US media reports as saying that the cow in which the fourth BSE case was discovered had no distinguishing marks, making it impossible to determine what farm it had been raised at or how old it was.

“The US only examines 0.1% of the cattle slaughtered in any given year for mad cow disease,” Park added. “The fact that an infected cow was found there shows that the US is not safe from mad cow disease.”

Democratic United Party spokesman Park Yong-jin also issued a statement Thursday in which he said, “By ignoring its promise to the South Korean public and refusing to halt US beef imports after mad cow disease has been discovered, the government is trampling on citizens’ self-respect and health rights.

"If the government is going to abandon its pledge and our sovereignty, it would be better to evict the administration," Park said.

Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Kang Ki-kab also took part in a statement reading, "The results of the 2008 beef negotiations were at the level where we cannot even carry out an immediate import suspension when mad cow disease erupts in the United States."

"We need to substantially strengthen these unfair import hygiene conditions through a full renegotiation with the United States, and recover our lost quarantine sovereignty," the statement said.

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