The United States Monday reconfirmed a strong alliance with South Korea despite weeks of street protests in Seoul and other major cities against the resumption of imports of U.S. beef.
"We have a longstanding history of military and security cooperation," Yonhap News quoted Tom Casey, deputy spokesman at the U.S. State Department, as saying. "I don't think this or any other individual issues are going to change the fundamental relations (between the two countries)."
The spokesman also dismissed allegations that the U.S. bullied South Korea into making the controversial beef deal. "I think those experts are frankly being condescending to the South Koreans and the South Korean government."
"The South Korean government is fully capable of representing the interests of South Korea and of the South Korean people," he was quoted as saying. "And we negotiate with South Korea as a full and equal friend and ally and partner."
Casey expressed hope that South Koreans will soon be able to "believe that American beef is safe and certainly a product that most of us here in the United States enjoy on a regular basis."
An April 18 beef import deal between the allies triggered violent street rallies in South Korea from early May, forcing Seoul and Washington to come up with a new arrangement that would ban shipments of beef from cattle older than 30 months until South Korea's consumer confidence is restored.