US, SKorea resume top-level beef trade talks

AFP, June, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States and South Korea resumed high-level talks Tuesday on a US beef import deal that has provoked massive protests in Seoul, shaking the new conservative government.

Negotiators were scrambling to resolve the furor over the recent deal on US beef imports that could derail the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, signed a year ago but still unratified by either side.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon were holding discussions at the USTR headquarters late Tuesday in Washington, USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel told AFP.

Officials from both sides earlier restarted talks on technical issues begun Monday.

"The technical discussion this morning have ended. Ministers are...