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

INFURIATED MINDSET

Infuriated Mindset

The wrath and furor of different circles in south Korea against the anti-popular misrule of the Lee Myung-bak regime has reached the extreme now across south Korea.

Right after seizing the power Lee loudly advertised the so-called “grassroots-friendly policy” and the stabilization of jobs for workers.

However, it turned out to be nothing more than a lip service.

The “privatization of public businesses”, the malrevision of the “law on part-timers” and the “law on minimum wage”, the easing of restrictions and the tax reduction orchestrated by Lee were all against the people at the expense of the toiling people's sacrifice in favor of the conglomerates.

The traitor also fanned up the regional discord and mercilessly stamped out the people's right to existence through the deceptive commitments.

The typical are the nullification of the project to build a new airport in the southeastern part of south Korea, a farce of selecting a place for an international scientific business belt and moving the headquarters of south Korean land and housing corporation. Traitor Lee abandoned the project to build the airport last March under the pretext of lack of economic efficiency and efficacy, though he promised it for the Gyeongsang Province.

In this regard, local and civic organizations in South and North Gyeongsang Provinces and Busan which competed for the project rushed into anti-government struggle with sit-in demos, candlelit rallies and fasting.

Much bewildered by this the traitor retracted a decision of locating the land and housing corporation separately in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province and Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, and enforced to locate it in Jinju.

In such a situation, the infuriated local bodies and citizens in Jeonju and other areas of North Jeolla Province protested against traitor Lee saying the government pushed ahead with locating the land and housing corporation solely in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, in a bid to appease the people in Busan, enraged by the abandonment of the project to build an airport.

As far as the issue of selecting a place for an international scientific business belt is concerned, though it was originally planned to be built in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province, traitor Lee announced that the government would restart the work of selecting the place with the aim to win the next elections by the support of southern regions of south Korea. So South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla Provinces as well as South Chungcheong Province rushed into the competition for hosting the belt.

Nevertheless, traitor Lee, after the shameful defeat in the April 27 by-elections, announced that the belt is to be built in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province as originally decided.

The Democratic Party and other opposition parties bitterly denounced the government for politicizing the project of building the international scientific business belt, and the local bodies in South and North Gyeongsang Provinces and South Jeolla Province vehemently criticized Lee Myung-bak calling for his resignation for the division of the public opinion and regional discord, saying they will never accept the government’s announcement.

Worse still, some of the ruling party censured Lee Myung-bak as an ace of regional division and a government widening the discord.

It is none other than the people who suffer in the long run by the fraudulent farce of traitor Lee, trademarked with a “pragmatic government”, who fumbles with “state project” by political expediencies far from any calculation of scientific feasibility or economic efficiency.

Different circles in south Korea jeer at Lee Myung-bak’s often-changing words and lies as “pathologic”.

He was also conferred a “sewing machine prize” after ranking the first in a poll for selecting candidates of “mouth to be stitched”. It’s really a tragicomedy.

Treachery of the people's sentiment begets a divine wrath.

The Lee Myung-bak group of traitors which has ruthlessly trampled down the people's right to existence and is now forsaken by the people can never escape a miserable end by the people's stern punishment

DPRK Will Not Deal with Lee Myung Bak: Spokesman for NDC of DPRK

It is our stand to let them wait for "contingency" as long as they please according to their "waiting strategy," sticking to their "theory of principle" on the basis of their own judgment till they face their self-destruction.

2. The DPRK will launch a nationwide offensive to put an end to the moves of the Lee group to escalate the confrontation with the DPRK.

The all-out offensive of the army and people of the DPRK is a merciless one.

The trend of the times will prove that hot waves for genuine democracy will rage in the base of the group.

The army and people of the DPRK for the present will take practical actions to cope with the confrontation racket of the group.

As the group put a check bar on reconciliation and cooperation, denying dialogue and contacts, the Korean People's Army will cut off the north-south military communication in the area along the east coast which has been maintained to provide a military guarantee for the north-south passage and close the communication liaison office in Mt. Kumgang area as the first step.

As already warned by the DPRK, it will take a physical action without any notice any time against any target to cope with the anti-DPRK psychological warfare persistently perpetrated by the group with a foolish aim. -0-

Fascist Suppression of Workers Slammed in S. Korea

Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- The South Headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea's Reunification in a commentary on May 24 denounced the Lee Myung Bak dictatorial regime for its violent crackdown on workers.

That day the authorities set in motion 2 500 policemen to arrest at least 500 workers of an enterprise who were staging a sit-in in protest against the unreasonable closure of workshop by the management side, the commentary noted.

The authorities' suppression is aimed to stamp out the rights of the workers and obliterate the labour movement, it said,warning that the "government's" repression will invite bigger resistance of the workers. -0-