Korean struggles

General strike called

South Korea's two biggest labour organisations, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, have separately called a general strike for mid-December. The calls are part of a campaign demanding that the government not conclude a year-long review of labour laws without removing provisions that curb workers' ability to engage in collective action.

The KCTU has filed 338 labour disputes with the Ministry of Labour Affairs to fulfil the legal requirement to call a strike. However, the ministry has refused to process them, saying the planned strike is "illegal" and warning that all participants might be arrested. The KCTU, which is itself "illegal" as a result of the government's refusal to grant it registration, said that it will go ahead with the strike.

Students sentenced

Fifty-one of the 444 students being charged for participating in the August 15 pro-unification rally and subsequent stand-off in the Yonsei University have been sentenced to jail terms of between eight months and three years. Another 59 received suspended jail sentences of between one and 1½ years, with the suspension applying only if they stayed out of "trouble".

More student leaders who escaped the August round-up were arrested on October 28, when 2000 police raided Sejong University, where the students were holding a clandestine meeting. Another student leader, Park Ro-shin from Namchongryun, the influential student union in the south, was arrested on October 22.

Forced labourer seeks compensation

Kim Sun-kil, a 74-year-old Korean, is seeking to file a class action suit against the Japanese government for unpaid wages during Japan's occupation of Korea (1910-45). Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to engage in hard labour in mines and other dangerous workplaces, including those owned by big Japanese conglomerates. Many workers remain unpaid, but the Japanese government rejects responsibility on the basis of the 1965 agreement which normalised its bilateral relationship with the South Korea.

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