By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Opposition party lawmakers Wednesday threatened to submit a bill calling for the resignation of the minister of agriculture for the about-face of ministry officials on their position regarding the public's health concerns over mad cow disease.
Governing party leaders, however, were dismissive, insisting the meat is safe to eat and the negotiators have been on track with the agreement.
At a National Assembly hearing, lawmakers of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) accused the government of changing its position on the safety of the U.S. beef.
Rep. Cho Kyung-tae said the government sent a letter to the U.S. government last year making the point that the U.S. beef was not safe to eat. ``Now the government told its people that it is safe to eat. ''
UDP leader Sohn Hak-kyu said President Lee Myung-bak is responsible for the worsening situation.
``The deal was clinched shortly before the Lee-Bush summit in April, indicating that Korean negotiators hurriedly signed it in an attempt to pave the way for the summit talk,'' Sohn told reporters.
Opposition party lawmakers asserted Lee used the beef card, which they called an unfair deal giving too much to the U.S. side while receiving little, for the intimate-looking photo with U.S. President George W. Bush on a golf cart at Camp David.
Citing a report produced last year by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF), Rep. Choi Kyu-sung of the UDP claimed the government needed to use a proper standard to accurately evaluate the impact of U.S. beef on the health of Koreans.
``According to the report, Koreans are found to have more vulnerable genes than Americans which could cause the people in this country to be easily infected with the mad cow virus'' he said. The government report is a review paper made by a group of local public health professionals.
``But ministry officials claimed Korean people proved to be safe from the disease when using the same criteria used for Americans. This does not make sense,'' Choi said.
A ministry official, however, said no data has supported the report finding is accurate.
Rep. Kang Ki-kab of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) disclosed new findings of the classified government report during the hearing.
Kang claimed the government negotiators had not addressed the core public health issues such as an import ban on bones having SRM, which are tissues that ― in case of mad cow disease infected cattle ― contained the agent that may transmit the disease during the negotiations.
Legislators of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) attempted to protect the agriculture ministry.
GNP leader Kang Jae-sup said cattle infected with mad cow disease would never be imported from the U.S. to this country.
Kang told a plenary parliamentary session that public health shouldn't be a topic for political consideration.
``If there is any single outbreak of mad cow disease in the U.S., the GNP will stop importing any kind of beef from the country,'' Kang said.
The GNP leader also pledged his party would wait and see how the beef deal between the U.S. and Japan turns out and if his party sees any differences in the possible agreement, it will demand the U.S. government to use same rules in the agreement with Korea.