By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), urged the United States to reconsider the U.S. beef import agreement.

Park said if the U.S. government is truly confident about the safety of U.S. cattle, then it should allow South Korea to halt all beef imports from America if new mad-cow cases occur.

Under the current agreement, if there is a new outbreak of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the South Korean government can halt importing beef cuts from slaughterhouses or processing facilities connected to the outbreak. But at the moment, the Korean government would not be able to halt all U.S. beef imports.

``There were no new cases of mad cow disease in the United States for the past few years. And the United States government is saying that U.S. beef is absolutely safe. So the solution is very simple. If there are new mad-cow cases, then the U.S. government should simply allow the South Korean government to stop all U.S. beef imports," Park said. Her comments were reported by Han-Kook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times.

Park said, ``There won't be anything to lose for U.S. officials because they are claiming U.S. beef is already safe. And it will also help ease the concern by the Korean public. It's a win-win proposal."

Park has also said this week that the Korean government should be able to revise its beef import agreement with the United States if there are indeed serious safety issues involved with U.S. cattle. Park and a number of prominent members of the ruling GNP have been making critical comments about Lee administration's beef import agreement, which has been under intense scrutiny.

Park, former GNP chairperson and daughter of late Park Chung-hee, president of South Korea from 1963 to 1979, was President Lee's main rival during last year's presidential election process.