Struggles in south Korea

Pyongyang, July 28 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions demanded the withdrawal of lay-off and stop to the suppression of trade unions. The organization held a rally in the plaza of the Seoul City Office on July 23 with more than 3 000 unionists attending.

At the rally speakers denounced the Hanjin Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. and the Yusong Enterprise for setting in motion gangsters to crack down workers calling for their vital rights.

They cannot stop the actions till they gain the basic labor rights and political freedom, they said. They would further expand sit-in hunger strikes.

They demanded the authorities stop the unreasonable lay-off and moves to undermine the trade unions.

At the end of the rally they made a demonstration march. -0-

S. Korean Authorities Hit for Fascist Suppression of Protestors against Construction of Military Base

Pyongyang, July 28 (KCNA) -- The All-Islanders Measure Committee for Checking the Construction of Jeju Military Base in south Korea held a press conference outside the construction site of the Jeju naval base on July 25 denouncing the puppet authorities for their fascist suppression of the protestors against the construction of the base.

At the press conference speakers exposed that the director of the Police Agency appeared at the Sogwipho Police Station on Jeju Island and ordered the use of violence, branding the actions against the construction of the naval base as illegal.

According to his order the police occupied the Kangjong Village, creating a terror-ridden atmosphere, they charged.

This shows the authorities have no willingness to stop the construction of the base, they said.

They would not move even a step back in the actions against the construction of the Jeju naval base, they noted.

They demanded the authorities stop at once the crackdown on the actions against the construction of the base. -0-

KCTU Confirms New Action Program

Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held a meeting at its conference room on July 22 and confirmed its future action program.

It set the intensive action period from July 25 to August 13 and underlined the need to check the conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., get the south Korea-U.S. SOFA revised and stop the authorities' fascist suppression.

The organization would stage a big action with workers across south Korea with August 15 as a momentum, the action program said.

It would form a vanguard for regional reunification, an action group and a marchers group to stage anti-U.S. actions including the opposition to the construction of Jeju naval base and probe into the truth about the crimes related to the burial of defoliant, it stressed.

KCTU would have all the people turn out in the action to get part-time jobs abolished, foil the suppression of the labor movement, win the basic right to labor and punish the "Grand National Party", it added. -0-

S. Korean Police Hit for Firing Tear Liquid

S. Korean Police Hit for Firing Tear Liquid

Pyongyang, July 14 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Confederation of Public Health and Medical Organizations and the Pusan and South Kyongsang Provincial Consultative Council of Doctors for Humanitarianism on July 10 denounced the police for firing tear liquid at the participants in the action demanding vital rights.

The organizations accused the police of firing tear liquid containing carcinogen material and toxic gas substance at the protestors against the unreasonable lay-off by the business side around the Young Do Shipbuilding Yard of the Hanjin Heavy Industries Co. Ltd.

This tear liquid is highly likely to contain the same substance as what was used to crack down on the strike of the Trade Union of the Ssangryong Motor Co. Ltd., in 2009, they charged, terming the use of such tear liquid against the demonstrators who included even aged people and children an inhuman action.

Meanwhile, a photo showing police throwing out tear liquid on the road after putting down the demonstration was posted on an Internet homepage that day, stunning the people. -0-

S. Korean Authorities′ Anti-Worker Policy Flayed

Pyongyang, July 5 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Teachers Union in a commentary on July 1 denounced the authorities' anti-worker policy.

The commentary recalled that the Minimum Wage Committee on June 29 set forth a negotiating proposal for deciding the minimum wage for 2012 at the tacit agreement with the management side.

Even this proposal calls for infringing upon the elementary right to existence of the workers suffering destitution and pain due to low wage, it deplored, and continued:

The said committee, in the final analysis, has whiled away time not to help workers get higher pay but just to read the face of the management side.

Noting that the demands of the workers have not been reflected at all in the minimum wage level since the present regime appeared, the commentary said the committee and the management side can never shirk off the blame for having made a mockery of the workers.

It urged the committee to retract the above-said proposal at once and raise their wages. -0