South Korea-The American beef scandal.

SOUTH KOREA-US BEEF SCANDAL.

US BEEF may have been fraudulently sold as Australian in 2003, at the height of the BSE scare in Korea.

A recent report in the Korea Times alleges US beef, already in that country in December 2003, was misrepresented as Australian and re-sold.

The report claimed two men, identified only as Kim and Seon, hoarded US beef that Seon was supposed to destroy at the time BSE was discovered in the US.

But Meat and Livestock Australia dismiss the report, and say there is no evidence that the incident occurred.

The paper reported that of 29 tonnes of US beef at a Korean discount store, Seon, who worked at the store, allegedly destroyed seven tonnes and, in the next year, sold almost 13 tonnes of the remaining beef falsely labelled as Australian.

The paper said the two men were indicted by Korean prosecutors.

They are also said to have faked expiration dates on the beef to rake in more than $200,000 from the illicit sales.

The men claimed the final nine tonnes of beef was not sold, but the report said prosecutors believed otherwise.

They were continuing their investigation and could expand it to determine if there were other cases.

MLA’s regional manager Glen Feist said MLA had investigated the report and did not have any evidence or independent reports that it had happened.

"Nobody seems to know what this is about, or why it has come up in the media again," he said.

"There were stories back in 2003 but we can’t seem to get to the bottom of it."

Mr Feist said he did not think the incident, if it did occur, had affected the integrity of Australia’s produce, which was important in Korea where there was a high state of consumer concern about BSE.

He said US beef was again being sold in Korea, but sales were much slower than expected.

This was good news for Australia, which had greatly increased its market-share in Korea following the discovery of BSE in the US in 2003.