Lawmakers Claim U.S. Ribs Intentionally Sent To S. Korea
US - A recent shipment of American beef that contained boxes filled with ribs was sent to South Korea with the intention of testing the government amid mounting U.S. calls for Seoul to fully reopen its beef market, lawmakers said Friday.
1 June 2007
1 minute read
The discovery Wednesday of two boxes of U.S. beef ribs, far more obvious than bone chips that cannot be brought into the country under current import rules, made Seoul suspend imports from the U.S. exporter, Cargill, and investigate how the shipment was sent. The Agriculture Ministry is to decide whether to send back only the two boxes or the entire 15.2-ton shipment after hearing an explanation from Cargill, located in Minnesota.
Calls for an immediate return of the entire shipment mounted from the legislature. Lawmakers of the National Assembly agriculture, forestry, maritime affairs and fisheries committee, who travelled to the southern port of Busan to examine the matter, said the shipment of the rib-filled boxes "breached common sense."
"They were big, unbroken bones that cannot be compared to bone chips," said Rep. Choi Kyu-sung of the pro-government Uri Party who examined the boxes.
Late last year, South Korea sent back entire shipments of beef because they contained tiny bone chips.
