(Updates with government, ruling party comments) By Miyoung Kim and Jack Kim SEOUL, May 6 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Tuesday it would step up quarantine inspections on U.S. beef and its labelling requirements as safety concerns mount ahead of its first full resumption of imports in more than four years. On May 15, South Korea resumes quarantine inspection on all cuts of U.S. beef from animals of any age, which will start imports flowing again and lifts a blanket ban Seoul had imposed in 2003 following an outbreak of mad cow disease. South Korea agreed last month to open its market wider to American beef after U.S. lawmakers have said a separate, sweeping bilateral free trade deal would not make it through Congress until Seoul made concessions on beef. There are about 5,300 tonnes of boneless U.S beef waiting in South Korea to clear quarantine inspection. Under the new guidelines, South Korea will open a greater percentage of U.S. beef imports for testing and send teams of experts to U.S. slaughterhouses to inspect conditions. "It is impossible to renegotiate the agreement, as it has been already signed by the two countries," deputy farm minister Min Dong-seok told reporters. Public concern about the safety of U.S. beef increased after one South Korean TV network last week claimed Koreans carry a special gene that makes them more susceptible to mad cow disease. Thousands then gathered in Seoul to protest the beef deal. South Korean scientists and government officials have denied the claims. An editorial from a major daily, the JoongAng Ilbo, criticised the public frenzy as "mad cow madness". But an online petition calling for President Lee Myung-bak's impeachment has collected more than 1.2 million signatures, and fallout from the beef deal has helped push his support rate to 30 percent, the lowest since taking office in February. On Tuesday, Lee's conservative Grand National Party (GNP) called for a renegotiation of the beef deal, saying government safety proposals did not sufficiently address public concern. "We need more specific measures, or it would be difficult to convince the public (of the beef's safety)," GNP spokeswoman Cho Yoon-sun said after party leaders met with government officials. The agreement to reopen South Korea's beef market does not require parliamentary approval, but flare-ups could spill over to the free trade pact, which needs to be ratified by parliament in order to take effect. At present, South Korea, once the third-largest import market for U.S. beef, admits only boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months old. But even that trade has been stalled since last year as Seoul suspended inspection after prohibited bone chips showed up in several U.S. shipments. (Editing by Alex Richardson and Jon Herskovitz)
A child cries while receiving a medical check from a kind of intestinal virus, identified as enterovirus 71 or EV71, at a hospital in Hefei, Anhui province, May 4, 2008. China ...
