South Korea lifted the ban on pork imports from France, Ireland and the Netherlands

Lead: Seoul, April 9 (Reuters) - South Korea has lifted the ban on pork imports from three European Community countries imposed by the FMD outbreak last March, an agriculture ministry official said on Tuesday "The South Korean government officially lifted the ban on pork imports from France, Ireland and the Netherlands from April 8," the official told Reuters by telephone According to the international organization for animal epidemics (OIE), headquartered in Paris, the three countries were restored as FMD non epidemic areas in September last year In the countries where FMD occurred last year, only Britain is still banned from exporting pork to South Korea FMD also occurred in South Korea in March and April 2000, but it was confirmed as a non epidemic area by OIE in September last year According to the Ministry of agriculture of South Korea, a total of 145817 tons of pork were imported in 2000, including 18472 tons from France, 15921 tons from the Netherlands and 1515 tons from Ireland.