Almost 27,000 kilograms of imported beef was disguised as Korean and sold in wholesale and retail butcher shops.

The Gyeonggi Province branch of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service announced on June 19 it had caught 40 beef sellers in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province who had sold a total of 26,776 kg of imported beef as South Korean from the start of this year until June 18.

The meat included 9663 kgs of bone-in beef and beef by-products such as leg meat and leg bones.

The newspaper reported an analysis by country of origin showed 21,673 kilos of Australian beef was labelled as South Korean, 3241 kg of mixed South Korean and Australian beef was sold as South Korean and 880 kgs of mixed Australian and New Zealand beef was sold as South Korean.

Also 355 kgs of US beef was sold as South Korean and 38 kgs of mixed South Korean and US beef was sold as South Korean.

The country of origin of another 589 kg of beef was indiscernible. The US meat found in the crackdown came into the country before US beef imports were halted last October.

Amid the present consumer backlash against US beef because of fears about mad cow disease, the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service earlier this month conducted a clampdown on meat selling regulations.

For two weeks, 1300 officials inspected 1819 meat shops, 4.5 per cent of the total 40,000 nationwide.

Calls are growing for strengthened penalties on not only individual meat sellers but also the outlets tha t lease space to them.

"People rely on the department store or outlet brand when making purchases but the stores are quick to blame the small partner firms in the event of such incidents," Consumers Korea secretary-general, Ja-Hye Kim, told the South Korean media.

South Koreans opposing an April 18 Seoul-Washington US beef import agreement are continuing their candlelight protests, denouncing what they call the government's "deceptive" additional deal to ban imports of meat from cattle older than 30 months.

President, Myung-Bak Lee, this week instructed his cabinet to deal sternly with illegal and violent street rallies that pose a challenge to "national identity", South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.