By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
A senior presidential secretary and a group of Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers began trips to the United States Monday for talks on the U.S. beef import issue with American officials.
But the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) reiterated its demand for renegotiations on the beef import deal with the United States.
The UDP urged the Lee Myung-bak administration to send a special envoy to ask the U.S. to hold renegotiations to revise the ``poor'' Seoul-Washington beef deal, which was signed in April.
Cheong Wa Dae dispatched Kim Byung-kook, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security, to the U.S. after President Lee and U.S. President George W. Bush held telephone talks about Koreans' month-long protest against the beef deal last Saturday.
Kim and other senior secretaries tendered their resignations en masse last week, following the worsening public backlash.
Accompanied by Agriculture Ministry official Kim Chang-sup, Kim is scheduled to meet officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
The GNP delegation, including Reps. Hwang Jin-ha, Kwon Taek-gi and Lee Dal-kon, plans to meet officials of the U.S. administration, the Congress and the cattle industry, party officials said.
The talks between Seoul and Washington officials will likely be focused on measures under which U.S. beef producers would refrain from exporting meat from cattle aged over 30 months, they said.
But the UDP said in a statement that the delegates will not bring any effective result to placate angry Koreans.
``It seems that secretary Kim will discuss the measure of voluntary refraining of U.S. exporters,'' the statement said. ``Such a scheme could not be the solution. We urge Kim to ask for a beef deal renegotiation.''
The opposition party also cast skepticism about the efficiency of the GNP lawmakers' visit to Washington.
The UDP proposed parties push for legislation on prevention of infectious diseases from livestock, which might secure the country's ``quarantine sovereignty.''
President Lee expects American exporters and Korean importers to reach a voluntary agreement not to market beef from cattle older than 30 months here.
Koreans are worried that U.S. slaughterhouses do not have the capability to provide meat processing plants with the exact age of slaughtered cattle, a UDP official said.