By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Despite South Korea announcing ``additional negotiations'' with the United States to ensure the safety of imported American beef, NGO groups leading candlelit protests are continuing to demand President Lee Myung-bak to ``renegotiate the faulty deal'' or step down.

Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday the government will generate a ``renegotiation-like'' effect in the forthcoming additional talks on the American beef imports deal.

The announcement comes as the four-month-old Lee administration is seeking to defuse the largest act of civil disobedience in 21 years.

Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon will fly to Washington D.C. Friday for talks with his U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

Kim's departure comes on the heels of a visit by a senior presidential aide to Washington, but the Bush administration has said there will be no renegotiations, calling the demonstrations in Seoul an internal affair.

``The government respects and cares about the current public concerns on the issue as shown in the candlelit protests. That's why I am going to the United States,'' Kim said in Seoul. ``There are many other ways to mend the details of the agreement. We will try our best to find the best way to avoid imports of beef from cattle over 30 months old.''

Behind-the-scene communications have been under way between the countries, the minister added.

Kim stressed the role of the government in winning back public confidence in the safety of American beef.

Seoul, however, made it clear that its bottom line is a strategy of seeking to help beef exporters and importers agree on self-regulation to rule out shipment of beef from cattle aged over 30 months through the "additional" talks.

Lee Hye-min, the deputy chief negotiator in the Korea-United States free trade agreement talks, said the biggest concern from the general public is to change ``defective'' parts of the agreement, adding what matters is ``the content, not the formality.''

Cheong Wa Dae said the government will secure a written guarantee from the United States to ban exports of American beef from cattle older than 30 months.

Still, problems are likely to be lying ahead of Seoul on how much concession it can induce from Washington after an mutual agreement has already been officially made, as well as on how to come up with a "effectuating but unstipulated" magical solution.

A U.S. Senator Wednesday said South Korea has to fully implement the deal and that he would not accept any attempt to keep beef from older cattle from being imported to South Korea.

``The ball is in Korea's court. We signed a deal and both sides have to live up to the deal,'' said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.

Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow also ruled out chances of a renegotiation, noting; ``We don't think there is scientific justification for changing the agreed basis that we worked out in April, but American exporters have offered a step forward.''

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr