S. Korean Leaders Vow to Halt Labor Violence : Prime Minister, in a Special Cabinet Session, Calls for Harsh Measures to Restore Order

Government leaders, meeting in a special Cabinet session Saturday, vowed to put an end to the violent labor disputes that have swept South Korea in recent weeks.

Workers’ actions have exceeded acceptable bounds, Prime Minister Kim Chung Yul declared at the Cabinet meeting, which was open to reporters for half an hour.

“Such violent acts do the people immense harm and shake the order of law,” Kim said. “The government should discourage such acts and in case of recurrence should take harsh punitive steps to restore social order and protect people’s livelihoods.”

Home Minister Chung Kwan Yong reported at the meeting that police have detained 2,416 workers who took part in violent labor disputes since June 29. Formal charges have been brought against 144 workers, and about 200 are under interrogation, he said. The rest have been released after reprimands or referred for summary court action, other officials said.

Police said that on Friday alone, 508 strikers in various disputes across the country were arrested.

Newspapers in Seoul reported in today’s editions that authorities are expected to file charges of violence, arson or illegal agitation against about 100 workers who were among twice that number taken into custody in pre-dawn raids Friday at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan and the Daewoo Motor Co. automobile plant in Inchon.

The Labor Ministry reported Saturday that 3,200 strikes have erupted since early July, when the military-backed government bowed to weeks of street protests and announced acceptance of opposition demands for sweeping democratic reforms. A direct presidential election is now planned for mid-December.

The government move, coming after years of tight suppression of labor movements, opened the door to the current wave of strikes by workers demanding higher wages and the right to organize unions.

Yonhap, the national news agency, reported Saturday that the strikes have caused the country’s three auto makers to fall behind on export targets.

More than two-thirds of South Korean car exports go to the United States. Hyundai produces the Excel, which was the biggest-selling imported small car in America in 1986. Yonhap quoted anonymous industry sources as saying that auto makers expected to fall 135,000 vehicles short of their 685,000 export target for this year.

Cho Kyu Ha, executive managing director of the Federation of Korean Industries, who was invited to speak to Cabinet members, said that cases of violence at 20 work sites “completely ignored all established principles of ethics, morals and public practice and were strongly tinctured with revolutionary ideology.”

“These incidents are not simple disputes between labor and management but bear the character of a struggle against the political system,” Cho said.

Justice Minister Chung Hae Chang told the session that “from now on the ministry will weed out all radical elements, including those who are tainted with leftism and have infiltrated into the labor disputes.”

Workers at the Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan, scene of the largest ongoing labor dispute in the nation, apologized for violent acts that had occurred but vowed to continue their protest. About 10,000 or 15,000 Hyundai strikers staged a rally on the company grounds Saturday demanding that authorities release all workers arrested Friday except those who set fires.

About 100 family members of detained strikers were dispersed by tear gas when they sought to enter the Ulsan police station Saturday to demand release of their kin, according to a Korean-language radio news report in Seoul.

Wage negotiations at the shipyard are not expected to resume until early next week.