By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow cautiously expected the U.S. Congress to approve the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of the year.

During a lecture at Sungshin Women's University in Seoul, Monday, the top U.S. envoy said the Bush administration is working hard to persuade the Congress to approve the landmark trade deal at an early date.

"We worked too hard and too long to lose this historic opportunity," he said

Vershbow also said the U.S. administration would fully cooperate with South Korea on efforts to dispel public concerns about the safety of U.S. beef, which he said are based on unscientific information.

The ambassador reiterated that American cuts meet international safety standards and their overseas exports were consistent with World Organization for Animal Health guidelines.

He cited that not a single case of mad cow disease has been discovered in all 350 million cows born after 1997.

He expressed regret over an earlier shift by the Roh Moo-hyun government on the imports of U.S. beef, which he saw was largely motivated by political reasons.

``Unfortunately after his party was defeated in the December presidential election, President Roh decided not to fulfill his promise and follow the science,'' the ambassador was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

South Korea, once one of the top three importers of U.S. beef, banned all imports in 2003 due to fears of mad cow disease. It eased the ban in 2006 but still excluded bone-in-beef and other items. The country suspended imports again last October after banned materials were found in a shipment.

Last month, Seoul announced it would import most cuts of beef, including ribs which were previously banned, from cattle aged under 30 months. Imports from cattle aged 30 months or older will also be allowed when the United States applies stricter controls to protein-based feed.

Public alarm has been growing after a television show reported Koreans were genetically more likely to contract variant Creutzfeld Jacob Disease than Westerners.

Scaremongers have been spreading rumors among the public via the Internet that the brain-wasting disease could be transmitted through nonfood products such as cosmetics, diapers and medicines, or through kissing and breathing germs.

Such rumors, in particular, stoked fears among young students, having them join candlelit vigils in downtown Seoul against the wider opening of the local market to U.S. beef.

As for the U.S. decision to send hundreds of tons of food aid to North Korea, he said it was made on Pyongyang's agreement on improvements in the monitoring system of food distributions.

The White House announced over the weekend that it would provide the North with 500,000 tons of food, 400,000 tons of which are to be delivered through the World Food Program and the rest via U.S. nongovernmental organizations.

A group of U.S. experts will soon travel to North Korea to lay the groundwork for Washington's planned delivery of aid, Vershbow said.

``An experts' meeting will be held in Pyongyang in the very near future for operational details," he said. Both the United States and South Korea are worried about the DPRK's dire food situation.''

The DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A Unification Ministry official, however, said North Korea's food situation is not serious enough to require emergency food aid.

Seoul is under mounting pressure to send humanitarian aid to North Korea as reports on the threat of an outright famine in the communist state made headlines in recent days.

The South Korean government, however, insists it will resume its annual shipment of about 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer when the North makes a request for it.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr