000406 South Korea Meat Demand Falls

Seoul, South Korea - Park Choon-nam sat idle in her nearly empty restaurant Wednesday, with the customers who usually wait in long lines for her grilled beef frightened away by the deadly foot-and-mouth disease that has infected one cattle-raising area after another.

“It's very bad. If this situation doesn't change soon, it will ruin our business,” said Park, owner of Hanwoobang restaurant in north Seoul. She and her two employees served only a few customers at an hour when the place is usually packed.

South Korea announced Wednesday that seven other areas were infected since foot-and-mouth disease broke out two weeks ago in Paju, a major cattle-raising area north of the capital. The disease can kill carrier animals and entire herds of cattle, but it cannot be passed to humans.

In a show of confidence, Prime Minister Park Tae-joon ate grilled beef in front of reporters late Tuesday, while the office of President Kim Dae-jung announced it was adding more beef and pork to the menu for the presidential Blue House.

But a growing number of people refuse to eat beef or pork. Meat prices have dipped as restaurants serving meat reported a drop-off in customers.

“I heard it's safe. But I don't feel like eating beef or pork. It just feels unclean,” said Kim Yoo-ri, a hairdresser, who was drinking coffee at a shop not far from Hanwoobang restaurant.

The government worries the sudden drop in meat consumption could ruin the nation's livestock farms. Last year, South Korea consumed 395,000 tons of beef, of which 153,000 tons were imported from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Also Wednesday, Lee Wan-koo, an opposition legislator, was hospitalized after drinking a disinfectant for the foot-and-mouth disease, mistaking it for water, while holding an emergency meeting on the disease. Lee was in stable condition, hospital officials said.

Japan says foot-and-mouth had been discovered in 10 cows that were slaughtered as a precautionary measure in the southern Miyazaki prefecture on March 25.

The first suspected outbreaks in the two nations in mid-March prompted the two countries to suspend imports of beef and pork from each other. Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and China also banned imports from both countries.

It was the first confirmed outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Asia since the disease virtually wiped out Taiwan's hog herd three years ago.

South Korea has slaughtered about 400 cattle and pigs and inoculated 110,000 others. Most livestock markets were indefinitely closed to prevent the further spread of the disease, while the government ordered vaccine for 5 million animals from Britain, France and Germany.

South Korea plans to inoculate all 11 million cattle and pigs in the country.

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