OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon says lingering confusion over Canada's inspection system is to blame for South Korea's longstanding beef ban — and he's calling on the country to put science ahead of blind emotion.

In Seoul to set the stage for next month's visit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Cannon urged his Korean counterparts to open the door to Canadian cattle and meat that was slammed shut amid the 2003 BSE scare. Before the trade blockade, South Korea was Canada's fourth-largest beef export market, worth about $50 million a year.

Despite the persistent lack of knowledge about Canada's traceability system, Cannon left the meetings "buoyed" his points were taken to heart.

"I strongly urged them to look at the scientific aspect of it and how Canada is leading the way to more or less base the decision-making process on science rather than on emotional feelings on this issue and I was reassured by the parliamentarians that they would find the first opportunity to be able to look at what Canada is actually doing in terms of our science-based approach," he said in a teleconference with reporters.

Canada has already filed a challenge with the World Trade Organization. Trade Minister Stockwell Day also plans to raise the beef ban issue during the APEC summit in Singapore this month.

On Tuesday Cannon visits the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, which he called the "last visible scar" of the Cold War.

"Interestingly enough, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this place reminds us what suffering blind ideological division can bring to countries and people," he said. "This place has become a monument to the folly of totalitarianism."

kathleen.harris@sunmedia.ca