South Korea strikes out on beef renege try

South Korea found out that a "deal is still a deal" in the good ol' US of A this week, as emissaries it sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington refused to change the terms of a beef trade pact opening South Korea to U.S. beef, that it signed a month ago.

U.S. vegetarian and animal rights groups interceded via the internet with Korean radicals opposed to the current government, fomenting huge street demonstations against U.S. beef and putting politrical heat on the new government. That's why they came to Washington D.C. hat-in-hand this week to try to cut a new deal.

Other South Korean pols are at the State Department and other government agencies to try to undo the deal, but so far President Bush and Congress have been insistent that any broad trade deal include opening the South Korean market to U.S. beef as a precondition to anything else.

South Korea was a major consumer of U.S. beef before cutting it off in the phony BSE scare, where a couple of dairy cows imported into the U.S. from Canada turned up with BSE. This was a trumped up, crass attempt by Asian nations, including Japan, to kick sand in the face of the Big U.S. and seek a public relations thumbs up. It has been costly to both nations, in lost trade in other products and in lost tourist and convention business, because of the inferior beef served in the Asian countrie's major hotels.

It is especially hypocritical, because both countries have a far worse BSE problem in their domestic cattle herds than anything ever seen in the U.S. They should clean up their own houses, before they attack the safe, wholesome U.S. beef industry.

I applaud the President, Congress and government officials who are hanging tough with South Korea, as well they should. South Korea signed the new trade pact 30 days ago with their eyes wide open, fully aware of what they agreed to. It's now time for them to live up to their part of the bargain.