"This reiterates ... that the Koreans were never really interested in opening the market," said John Reddington, vice president for trade at the American Meat Institute.

Earlier on Friday, officials in Seoul said they had rejected a shipment of U.S. beef that contained bone fragments. They acted a week after the first shipment from a U.S. plant since 2003 was rejected for the same reason.

Seoul's decision to bar imports from two out of three U.S. plants currently exporting to Korea mark a shaky restart for meat trade with the Asian nation. U.S. imports had been banned since the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in 2003.

The news also comes just a week before U.S. and South Korean officials meet in Montana, a major beef-producing state, to continue talks for a planned free-trade deal that would boost trade with the world's eleventh-largest economy.

Officials in Seoul say trade will continue from some U.S. plants, but add that they will bar all U.S. beef if materials like brains, spinal cords or nervous tissues are found.

In Washington, the official reaction has been angry. On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said South Korea "invented" a reason to refuse U.S. meat.

Source: Reuters