Seoul, April 23:

South Korea on Monday resumed imports of US beef three weeks after the two countries sealed a landmark free-trade pact, officials said.

“US beef totalling 6.4 tonnes arrived in South Korea today, awaiting inspection at Incheon airport,” an agriculture ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said the shipment from Kansas would go on sale next month after quarantine officials had completed an inspection of individual packages for bone chips.

“We will only send back packages of meat containing bone chips,” he said, adding that quarantine officials and experts would meet next week to consider whether inspection rules are too strict.

South Korea, once the third-largest market for US beef, last year lifted a three-year ban imposed to keep out mad-cow disease. But inspectors blocked all three shipments totalling 22 tons sent between October and December after finding tiny bone fragments in them. US officials reacted angrily, calling the action a pretext to protect Korean farmers.

Lifting the ban was not officially part of the free-trade deal, which was crafted in early April after 10 months of tough negotiations.