SEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ South Korean President Lee Myung-bak apologized to the public Thursday for ignoring their concerns as he negotiated a deal to restore U.S. beef imports — part of a larger strategy to boost ties with the U.S. and reinvigorate Seoul's flagging economy.
In a nationally televised address, Lee said he sought to restore beef imports to help the passage of a broader free-trade deal with the United States. The deal has been approved by both governments but still awaits legislative approval in Seoul and Washington.
But protests prompted by fears of mad cow disease in American beef grew into broader opposition to Lee's policy agenda, and paralyzed his government, as critics blasted him for failing to heed public opinion and accusing him of pandering to U.S. interests. The protests came to a climax with a candlelight rally last week that drew some 80,000 people.
South Korea was the third-largest overseas market for U.S. beef until it banned imports after a case of mad cow disease was detected in 2003, the first of three confirmed cases in the United States. Seoul agreed in April to reopen its market for U.S. beef, scrapping nearly all quarantine regulations.
With the global economy slowing, Lee said he saw the U.S.-South Korea free-trade agreement as a "shortcut" to fulfill his promise to boost the South's economy.
"I and the government are deeply sorry" for not caring about what the people wanted, Lee said.
It was Lee's second apology in less than a month over the beef debacle, which has forced all of his top aides and the entire Cabinet to offer to resign. Lee, a former Hyundai CEO and Seoul mayor, took office in February after a landslide election win but has seen his popularity plummet over the beef issue.
Lee said he "was in a hurry after being elected president as I thought I could not succeed unless I achieve changes and reform within one year after inauguration."
But Lee said there was "no possibility of ratification" of the free-trade deal this year if South Korea continued to reject American beef.
Lee also said he wanted to improve Seoul's relations with the U.S. to help the country's security, citing the nuclear threat from North Korea. Ties between the U.S. and the South had grown strained over a decade of liberal governments in Seoul.
Top trade officials of the two sides held their latest talks Wednesday in Washington where Seoul was seeking to restrict beef shipments to cattle younger than 30 months, considered less at risk for mad cow disease. The meeting ended inconclusively and the sides agreed to meet again Thursday, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said.
Lee said he told Bush during a phone call earlier this month that South Korea "would not be able to import U.S. beef" if Seoul's demands were not accepted.
The South Korean leader said Thursday he would replace his chief of staff and seven secretaries. But he gave no immediate indication of what action he would take regarding the Cabinet's offer to resign.
The scale of protests has dropped markedly over the past week as the government began looking to limit the import deal and violence at the demonstrations drew criticism.
On Wednesday evening, only 800 people turned out for the daily candlelight vigil, police said.
After South Korea opened its borders to U.S. beef, restricted imports reached South Korean supermarkets last year, but further shipments were put on hold in October after banned parts, such as bones, were found in a shipment.
Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the illness is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.
