It is a week night in central Seoul's Wuahanjib restaurant and the fumes of chargrilled beef mix with the heady smells of garlic and kimchi.
'All Korean beef is eaten within one month,' said manager Han Ju-han of the finely marbled local beef sizzling on the barbecues set into the table tops. 'Imported beef comes a long way, so quality is lower.'
This is a common belief - but local beef comes at a price. In a tightly protected agricultural market, diners at Wuahanjib pay 32,000 won (HK$271) for a serving of beef ribs, or 70,000 won for the choicest cuts: Korean beef is the world's most expensive.
Meat was very much on the minds of negotiators of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, for which the fifth round of negotiations wrapped up in the Montana beef belt earlier this month. The latest session of the tortuous talks were overshadowed by news that South Korean officials had rejected yet another shipment of US beef.
Once the world's third-largest market for US beef, South Korea stopped American shipments in 2003 over mad cow disease fears. Imports resumed in October but the first three shipments, totalling nine tonnes, were all halted after minute bone fragments were discovered in the meat - a no-no for Korea. 'We can do more to clarify inspection and rejection protocols,' US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said to a group of businessmen in Seoul last week. 'The beef we export to Korea is the same beef as we eat in the US.'
With world trade talks in virtual suspension, nations across the globe have been scrambling to secure free-trade agreements (FTA) with key partners in recent years. Mr Gutierrez called the Korean-US deal 'the most important FTA in 15 years'.