South Korea will have to seriously reconsider signing a free trade pact with the United States if no understanding is reached on rice market liberalization, the country's agriculture minister said Monday.

Park Hong-soo said the government position on rice has been steadfast since bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) talks started last year.

Rice is a crucial domestic issue in South Korea since it accounts for a large percentage of earnings for farmers. To protect the market, Seoul signed a pact with the United States and eight other rice exporting countries in late 2004 to control the amount of imported rice every year until 2014.

In exchange, South Korea gave rice exporters minimum market access that will grow to 7.96 percent of total domestic consumption from 4 percent in 2004.