Talks between South Korea and the United States on the resumption of beef imports will be held as originally planned, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Monday.

Hours earlier, the ministry announced a temporary halt to the negotiations. As a result, Trade Minister Kiim Jong-hoon was planning to return to Seoul via New York.

Under a rearranged schedule, Kim will go back to Washington to continue negotiations with U.S.
Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

During two-day talks with Schwab in Washington that continued until Saturday, Kim proposed that U.S. exporters voluntarily refrain from shipping beef from cattle older than 30 months to South Korea.

South Korea banned U.S. imports in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was detected, the first of three confirmed cases in the United States. In mid-April this year, Seoul agreed to reopen its market to U.S. beef imports, scrapping nearly all quarantine regulations.

But tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Seoul and other major cities in recent weeks, demanding that the beef import deal be renegotiated. Cattle older than 30 months are believed to be more susceptible to mad cow disease.