KCTU's General Strike Supported by S. Koreans

    Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- At least 1 000 civic and public organizations of south Korea held a press conference in Seoul on April 21 in support of the April 24 general strike of the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
    The secretary general of the Citizens Solidarity for Democratic Society said that the guarantee of basic labor right, increase of public pension, drastic increase of the minimum wage, probe into truth about the ferry Sewol disaster and abolition of the "regime's enforcement ordinance" demanded by the KCTU are all just calls.
    The director of the Unification Study Center branded the Park Geun Hye regime as "the regime infected with diseases" making the society rotten, adding the KCTU's general strike is one to topple the rotten Park regime.
    The permanent co-representative of the Strength of the People said that the regime defined the strike as "illegal one" and is planning wholesale suppression of it. Lurking behind this is an attempt to conceal the truth about the power-backed fraudulent election and the scandal disclosed by the Song Wan Jong case, he added.
    The chairman of the Federation of Distribution Traders said that majority of self-supporting businessmen are those who suffered losses due to capital and the regime, positively supporting the strike of the KCTU.
    The chairman of the Federation of Peasants Associations and the co-representative of the Solidarity for Liberation of the Poor accused the regime of regarding the workers as slaves, declaring peasants and the poor would join the KCTU in its general strike.
    The chairman of the South Headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea's Reunification called upon the KCTU to take the lead in the strike and peasants, urban poor, common people and all other people to get united to drive the Park regime into a cesspool.
    The chairman of the KCTU called for positive actions to save workers and other common people. -0-

S. Korean Puppet Forces Slammed for Their Ruthless Human Rights Abuses

S. Korean Puppet Forces Slammed for Their Ruthless Human Rights Abuses

Pyongyang, April 28 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Measure Council for Human Rights in South Korea on April 18 issued a white paper lashing out at the south Korean puppet conservative group for driving the people's living into dire destitution and ruthlessly violating their elementary right to live.
    The white paper laid bare the miserable life of the south Korean people.
    Last year the number of the unemployed was 2.875 million while that of semi-unemployed such as temporary and daily workers receiving low wages who are hired for a day or for several months reached 6.077 million, an all-time high.
    According to data released by the Labor Society Institute of south Korea, there were 18.77 million wage workers as of August last year and 2.27 million of them or 12.1 percent did not receive even the lowest wage. This is an increase of 570 000 workers over that in the same period of 2010.
    When the wage of men's regular workers is considered to be 100 percent, the wage of women's regular workers is 67 percent, that of men's part-time workers 54 percent and that of women's part-time workers 36 percent.
    The vital rights of peasants are being seriously threatened due to the puppet conservative group's sycophancy and treachery and unpopular moves to ruin agriculture.
    The farm land drastically decreased to 1.71 million hectares in 2013 from 2.3 million hectares early in the 1970s, and the population in the countryside dropped to 2.84 million from 14 million in the same period. As a result, the south Korean agriculture is at the crossroads of survival and ruin.
    Foreign surplus agricultural produce is flooding the south Korean market. Consequently, the grain production dwindled 60 percent and the self-sufficiency rate in food sharply dropped 33 percent in the same period. So, one of two inhabitants in south Korea is bound to starve to death unless south Korean depends on grain import from foreign countries.
    The annual average income of the rural households at present is no more than 60 percent of the income of urban households and 40 percent of the former is barely making their ends meet with the lowest living cost.
    As the house rent is jumping due to the puppet group's policy of speculation of real estate, the number of the poorest without proper shelter is on the increase.
    According to the 2013-2014 survey of housing situation, children living at the underground, dugouts, plastic sheet houses and rooftop houses numbered 1.29 million, young people 1.39 million and old persons aged 65 and above 103 000.
    670 000 persons are living underground in Seoul alone.
    The puppet group's policy of plunder through taxes is seriously threatening the living of the inhabitants.
    According to data released by the "Hanguk Bank", the average debt each resident of south Korea has to pay went beyond 20 000 U.S. dollars.
    Due to the unpopular rule of the south Korean regime and the economic crisis and the deteriorated people's living, all sorts of big accidents such as the ferry Sewol disaster have happened in an unbroken chain.
    The white paper said that south Korea witnesses the worsening social vices caused by the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.
    The rich who account for 10 percent of the population hold 48.05 percent of the total income while the low income people who account for 40 percent of the population hold just 2 percent of the total income.
    The gap between the rich and the poor can be illustrated by the practice "Kapjil," a serious social evil in south Korea these days.
    According to the survey conducted in Jan. this year, 95 percent of the respondents said that such practice is more seriously rampant in south Korea than in any other countries.
    And 58 per cent of the respondents said that politicians, high-ranking officials and tycoons are the very groups which commit such practices in the worst way.
    The middle class is becoming poor and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening and common people are living in despair because of such burdens as taxes, house rent and school fees.
    The white paper also dealt with the fact that the south Korean puppet conservative regime is suppressing south Korean people from all walks of life such as workers and peasants in their actions against the unpopular rule and for the protection of their right to live.
    In July 2013 police brutally suppressed the demonstrators calling for making the part-timers of Hyundai Motors full-timers by firing fire extinguishers and water cannons at them and brandishing shields and iron sticks.
    The south Korean puppet group of conservatives accused more than 190 members of the railway trade union of breach of law and issued warrants of arrest for them after branding the general strike of south Korean railway workers demanding the withdrawal of the plan for the de-nationalization of railways and a halt to the crackdown upon trade unions as an illegal one. Not content with this, the puppet group fired as many as 8 500 workers and brutally cracked down on them by setting in motion fascist repressive machines such as the Ministry of Justice 죵 the Police Agency.
    The puppet group indiscriminately fired water guns at the peasants in their actions against the humiliating moves for flinging the rice market open in June 2014, brutally suppressing the demonstrations.
    The bestial actions of the fascist murderers against the south Korean people demanding the vital rights and democratic rights found a more vivid manifestation in the suppression of actions for peace rally on August 15, 2013 and the actions of peace-loving citizens demanding the probe into truth about the ferry Sewol disaster and punishment of those responsible for it in May 2014.
    The conservative group is working with bloodshot eyes to crack down on the legitimate progressive political parties and organizations aspiring after justice, truth, democracy and reunification.
    In December last year, it perpetrated without hesitation a politically-motivated terrorist act of forcibly disbanding the Unified Progressive Party, a legitimate political party, which had spoken for the oppressed toiling masses including workers and peasants for more than ten years, after branding it as a "political party following the north".
    The miserable plight of the south Korean people will never change as long as the group of traitors are allowed to stay in power. -0

S. Korean Government Employees Declare General Strike

Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- South Korean government employees' actions are mounting higher to denounce the puppet authorities' moves to retrogressively reform the pension for government employees.
The Government Employees' Union on April 7 declared they would launch a general strike against the retrogressive reform of the pension for government employees.
The union planned to set up voting stations in its branches on April 6 and conduct voting in order to stage a general strike against the misrule of the puppet authorities. But the puppet ruling forces blocked voting stations by hurling police.
The General Federation of Trade Unions of Government Employees on April 8 declared that if the authorities retrogressively revise the pension for government employees, it would stage a general strike. -0

S. Korean Puppet Forces Urged to Stop Retrogressive Revision of Pension System for Government Employees

Pyongyang, April 4 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Government Employees and Service Personnel of the DPRK in a statement on Saturday extended full support to the members of the south Korean Government Employees' Union and people from all walks of life in their just actions against the authorities' retrogressive revision of the pension system for government employees.
    The south Korean puppet forces are working hard to retrogressively revise the pension system for government employees while ruthlessly encroaching upon the vital rights of millions of the government employees and their families.
    In protest against this, more than 50 trade unions of government employees and teachers in south Korea including the Government Employees' Union and the Teachers Union formed the joint action headquarters for increasing public pension and are staging various actions such as rallies, street marches and group hair-cutting against the puppet forces' retrogressive revision of the pension system for government employees.
    The statement said:
    The above-said moves are another inevitable product of the unpopular rule and predatory policy of the puppet conservative group to bleed the toiling masses white in a bid to squander funds for submitting to outsiders and escalating the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north and meeting the interests of monopoly plutocrats and bureaucrats.
    It is quite impossible to escape economic catastrophe and save the people's living from destitution as long as the descendants of "yusin" going against the people's mindset are allowed to stay in power.
    It is the way for the government employees and people of south Korea for living and protecting the democratic right and viral rights to sternly judge the corrupt conservative group. -0-

Just Struggle of S. Korean Workers Is Sure to Win: Spokesman for C.C., GFTUK

 Pyongyang, April 3 (KCNA) -- Massive actions of people from all walks life in south Korea are being staged in south Korea in protest against the unpopular rule of the fascist authorities.
    The south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which is taking the lead in the struggle for social democracy and genuine life of the workers, in a press conference on Feb. 25 formally declared it would wage a campaign to force the regime to step down through the April general strike and on Mar. 11 trade unions under the KCTU and the Federation of Trade Unions of south Korea held an inaugural ceremony of joint action of the manufacturing field at which they vowed to launch a general strike in case the authorities make "restructuring of labor market".
    Different regional headquarters of the KCTU held roving round-table talks and intensive rallies at which they expressed their will to check and frustrate the puppet conservative regime's moves to retrogressively revise the "labor law".
    Mounting high are massive actions across south Korea such as rallies and demonstrations by more than 80 000 people of all social standings including government employees in Seoul on March 28 in protest against the regime's retrogressive revision of pension for government employees.
    A spokesman for the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) in a statement issued on Friday said this is an eruption of the pent-up grievance and resentment at the puppet conservative group which is ruthlessly trampling down the democratic right and vital rights of the south Koreans.
    The C.C., GFTUK extends full support and firm solidarity to the massive actions of people from all walks of life in south Korea including workers who have resolutely risen up to oppose the puppet group's sycophancy and acts of treachery and unpopular rule and defend their independent demand and vital rights, the statement said, and went on:
    Since the emergence of the present regime, the U.S. colonial subjugation of south Korea has deepened, the living conditions of the people have worsened and south Korea has turned into the worst hell and tundra of human rights.
    Thrown into the mire of destitution, workers are committing suicides and some of them have been on sit-in strike for several months on a high chimney in winter. Streets are flooded with huge crowds of jobless people.
    However, the puppet group is brutally suppressing their actions by labeling them "illegal ones," lending a deaf ear to their strong demands.
    The south Korean workers should turn out as one in the all-people resistance at these crossroads of life and death and thus mete out a stern judgment to the puppet conservative regime.
    The entire working class in the northern half of Korea will voice positive support to the just actions of the workers and people from all walks of life in south Korea for democracy and the right to existence in the future, too, and express firm conviction that their just struggle is sure to triumph. -0-