Korean Strikers Free Executives

Striking workers at a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. freed 11 company executives they had held for five days, but Korea’s largest auto maker closed its main plant today to lock out striking workers.

The lockout at Hyundai Group’s plant at Ulsan, 190 miles southeast of Seoul, relieves management of obligations to pay striking workers and pressures the union to seek a compromise. The plant closure came before nearly 2,000 disgruntled employees of a Hyundai Group subsidiary--Hyundai Precision Industry Co.--freed 11 company executives they had held hostage at the plant in Changwon since Friday and called off a 5-day-old sit-in.