What a wet day!

Despite record rainfall, thousands of protestors came out to protest the HanMi FTA (or Korea-US FTA depending on what language you use). Anyways, I'm still drying off, but I'll post some pictures of the event in the coming day or so.

In the meantime here is a report from yonhap.

Tens of thousands rally in Seoul despite rain

Despite torrential rains, tens of thousands of South Korean activists and farmers staged anti-U.S. rallies Wednesday, denouncing their government's free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with Washington as a form of "U.S. economic colonialism."

About 70,000 anti-globalization protesters gathered in front of Seoul City Hall after holding separate demonstrations across the capital, said officials at the Korean Alliance against Korea-U.S. FTA, an association of anti-FTA civic groups in South Korea.

Police estimated the number of protesters at 37,000.

Police said they deployed more than 20,000 riot police to prevent the rallies from turning violent, but there were no immediate reports of injuries and arrests, police officers said.

The protesters plan to march towards the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae later Wednesday, raising concern over possible clashes with riot police.

During the rally near the city hall, the protesters, clad in raincoats, chanted anti-American slogans such as "We oppose U.S. economic colonialism." They also held pickets which read, "The FTA is handing over our entire economy to the U.S." and "The economic invasion. War threats. The U.S. is an axis of evil."

South Korean farmers, laborers and activists have conducted anti-FTA demonstrations since Monday, when South Korea and the U.S. opened their second round of FTA talks in Seoul with the aim of signing a deal by early next year. The protesters say the FTA would threaten their livelihood.

The afternoon rally snarled traffic in central Seoul, and is expected to cause further congestion during the evening rush hours as heavy rains battered the Seoul metropolitan area.

Seoul received nearly 200 millimeters of rain as of 3 p.m. and weather officials forecast the downpour would continue until Thursday morning.

In a related development, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a major umbrella trade union, implemented a six-hour strike Wednesday to protest the ongoing trade liberalization talks.

The labor union claimed 170,000 union members participated in the walkout but police put the number at 74,000.

A group of U.S. labor activists have also been participating in the anti-FTA rallies in South Korea.

"The gap between the rich and the poor has increased in every country that has concluded a free trade agreement with the U.S."

said Jeff Vogt, policy director for the AFL-CIO, at a press conference. "It logically follows how it will happen in Korea."

Not all South Koreans oppose the FTA talks. About 300 pro-business activists rallied Wednesday to support the government's move to sign the trade deal.

This week's trade talks are to continue until Friday. The first round was held in Washington last month.

Seoul, July 12 (Yonhap News)

One more thing... Here's a good story that details more the unequal fta negotions over medicine and medical patents, creepy.

Korean Neoliberalism and Empire

My take on the Kor-US FTA negotiations and protests... Over at ZNET for July 11th.

Korean Neo-liberalism and Empire: South Korean social movements struggle against Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.

July 10, 2006

Anti-corporate globalization protests are scheduled in Korea this week as part of larger efforts by Korean social movements to confront the effects of neo-liberalism on the Korean economy and society. The protests are in response to the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KorUS FTA) talks that are coming to Seoul this week after a first round of negotiations in Washington in June. This round of negotiations will take place between June 10-14th.

Korean groups are mobilizing here against what they see not only as an unequal negotiating framework between the US and Korea, but also against growing social polarization in the wake of escalating market reforms since the 1997 financial crisis.
Protests have continued for months but will swell this week with a protest of 100,000 planned for Wednesday, June 12th in front of the Silla Hotel in downtown Seoul where the negotiations are being held.

Going Bilateral

These protests add to a trajectory of dissent against neo-liberalism in East Asia that has been growing steadily in recent years. In November and December 2005, Korean farmers played a pivotal role in organizing against the APEC and WTO summits that were held that year in Busan, South Korea and in Hong Kong. These protests continued a tendency to confront capital by protesting it as it organizes regionally and globally, but the present moment seems to indicate that in East Asia, capital seems to be adopting a new strategy of going bilateral.

Since 1999, however, the WTO has faced difficulty in its negotiations over a generalized framework, both because of the increasing public criticism it received since the 1999 Seattle protests, and from the resistance it has met internally from developing countries, as well as powerful countries in the North that defend their own agricultural subsidies while seeking to open agricultural markets in the South.

Instead of new general agreements, the US and other countries in particular, including South Korea, have been negotiating bilateral agreements in recent years. These situations often pit smaller countries against bigger ones that have the state capacity to generate stronger concessions bilaterally than they may have through a multilateral negotiating framework in which poorer countries have been able to rally together on key issues and where anti-corporate globalization activists have been able to mount strong public criticism.

As a host of these bilateral trade agreements are being negotiated simultaneously, it becomes difficult for social movement groups to keep pace with the negotiation areas of each agreement, and thereby raise an effective counter-movement. Nonetheless, bilateral agreements also raise the possibility for new forms of solidarity and social protest as it presents activists with the challenge of effectively linking to groups affected by the negotiations and by neo-liberalism in general.

Kor-US FTA: Advance concessions and continuing negotiations

The key issue in the KorUS FTA negotiations this session will be the opening of the Korean rice market as well as the market on other agricultural foodstuffs such as beef, seafood and produce. This issue in particular has upset many Korea farmers as South Korea has been gradually increasing its quotas for foreign grown rice over the past few years. These farmers have responded that their small-scale plots cannot compete with the industrial agriculture found in regions such as California. In the fall two farmers killed themselves by drinking pesticide in protest to the governments passing of a rice quota increase while another two died as a result of wounds incurred from police during a protest outside the national assembly on November 15th.

Farmers have not been the only ones affected by preparatory restructuring in advance of the current FTA negotiations. South Korea’s ‘Screen Quota” policy which has been a boon for its domestic film industry was lowered previous to the May negotiations, prompting protests by several Korean A-list actors. After the announcement of the reduction of the Screen Quota this winter, actors and other entertainment industry professionals allied with Korean farmers in what they proclaimed as a common fight against further liberalization.

Though Korea has also made advance concessions in these and other areas, such as pharmaceutical drug pricing and communications policy, it appears to be fighting an uphill battle to get recognition on two of its key goals: recognition for products manufactured in its joint-industrial zone with North Korea, and a commitment on US visas for 5000 Korean professionals per year. The Korean delegation made little success in these areas in the June negotiations and they will remain on the back burner for the current session. This leaves perhaps automobiles as the only main area left in which it the Korean delegation may be generally successful.

State Power and Public Opinion

A common feature of free trade agreements from NAFTA to the WTO has been to use executive power to fast track negotiations and to keep such agreements from being thoroughly debated in the public sphere. South Korea’s president has sworn that it is his personal mission to get this FTA completed before his term is up in 2008 and President Bush is eager to complete the agreement (the largest for the US since NAFTA) before his fast-track negotiation authority is up in mid-2007. To this end, both countries have attempted to downplay opposition and the South Korean government has promised to deal sternly with any violent demonstrations.

Yet South Korean civil society and media have reported that opposition to the FTA is not a marginal phenomenon and that a majority the population would like the negotiations to be slowed down, if not stopped altogether. An editorial in the Hangyoreh newspaper on July 8th argued that the government has misunderstood public opposition to the FTA and risks generating further opposition if it does not listen to public opinion:

“Opposition to the FTA does not merely encompass a small part of the population. A recent opinion poll showed that 52 percent of the public thinks the signing of the FTA will harm the nation and up to 90 percent said the pace of FTA negotiations should be slowed. The government cannot persuade the people with abstract rhetoric that the nation’s social systems and international competitiveness will be enhanced, nor can it persuade them by gathering data favorable to its stance. The government did not disclose publicly the results of the first round of negotiations. Under such circumstances, it is public deception for the government to say that it would "collect opinions from every walk of life" and reflect those opinions at the negotiating table [1].”

In addition to fast track negotiation and the refusal of public disclosure, a key feature of neo-liberal restructuring in Korea has been the use of state power to limit the rights of workers by expanding irregular employment and limiting the right to strike for government and temporary employees (many of whom are de-facto permanent workers). These displays of state power, though not directly reducible to individual agreements, correspond to overall trajectories of neo-liberal labour market reform and have generated strong protest from Korea’s labour movements, including both its corporatist and more radical elements.

Growing Financial Hegemony

South Korean social movements have reason to advocate caution as to the signing of any new major agreement that may open its market to increased capital and product flows as happened in the wake of the 1997 crisis, especially by making agreements that would expand trade and ownership in key services such as finance. Private capital, especially finance capital, has been increasing its influence over the Korean economy as of late, and this has also led to problems of capital outflow and increased social polarization.

The restructuring following the 1997 crisis included the partial liberalization of the banking sector and the selling off other Korean assets. This restructuring has benefited both domestic and foreign capitalists. In recent months, Korea posted a monthly current account deficit that was the biggest in the 9 years since the crisis. According to a Korea Times article in May, the central bank attributed the deficit to a dividends payout to foreign investors, which amounted to $2.28 billion for April [2].

The financial sector has also faced capital outflow due to predation by short term foreign capital such as the Texas-based Lonestar hedge fund, which, in the wake of financial restructuring after 1997, bought the Korean Exchange Bank for $US 1.2 billion and has announced plans to sell it for 6.7 billion, prompting an investigation by South Korea’s regulator into the deflation of asset values before the purchase and the use of tax havens to minimize tax obligations. This controversy has implicated both the foreign firm that bought the bank and the domestic law firm that negotiated the deal.

Since the 1997 crisis, finance has continued to be diverted away from production towards real estate and consumer credit, fuelling a property bubble that has the government worried about a Japan-style recession. However, restructuring has left government also potentially divorced from any effective means of preventing speculation as the discipline over financial resources needed to stop it has became eroded as sectors of banking and financial industries were internationalized. In other words, the government may no longer be able to fall back on its ‘developmental’ model of long-term industrial finance by leaning on the banks to support a highly leveraged industrial sector, leading to increased unemployment and pressure by the private sector to reduce wages by expanding irregular workers and limiting their rights.

Furthermore, those corporations with revenue large enough to weather the crisis are no longer dependent on the state to underwrite their bad loans, and have the increased autonomy to move jobs overseas.

Korean neo-liberalism and the politics of empire

Though the growing hegemony of finance capital may be a feature of neo-liberalism that is not distinct to the Korean case, the ways in which economic liberalization intersects with the politics of empire on the peninsular gives Korean neo-liberalism a distinct topography. Here finance, trade, and sovereignty are interwoven in a delicate balance by political forces seeking democracy and re-unification on the peninsula in the midst of the US War on Terror.

The authors of a recent manifesto by the Suyu Research Group entitled The Twilight of Empire suggest that Korea’s participation in the empire, from Iraq to Pyeongtaek, as well as the concessions made on the Kor-US FTA have come at too high of a price. They come at the cost of neglecting social polarization and environment destruction at home, and have unwittingly begun to employ nationalism to silence dissent. The authors pose this problem as a problem for the whole of society, one that has been overlooked in pursuit of development and delayed in the era of political democracy.

“The U.S.-South Korea FTA, which seems to have taken us by surprise, has been tailing the young, the disabled, women, migrant workers, non-regular workers, and all the creatures of the tidal flats [that have been redeveloped in the Saemangum Reclamation Project] for a much longer time, under the guise of GDP, market competition, neo-liberalism, and the calculation of economic profits. We must realize that our society has encouraged or neglected the exploitation of these minorities. The unimaginable scale and intensity of disaster that the U.S.-South Korea FTA entails will be the messenger that will inform us that the pain of those minorities that we have overlooked can become our own” [3].

The authors of the manifesto advocate that the struggle against the FTA should start not from the nation, but from the minorities, the masses, and the multitude that they describe above. This is a valid point that needs to be stressed over and over. However, the Kor-US FTA may also be a key moment in determining how far those democracy activists that have become part of the state may be able to expand democratization into the economic sphere while avoiding the twin perils of empire and neo-liberalism. This is a crucial question, the success of which will surely depend on the outcome of the protests taking place outside of the state that will be escalating in Seoul all this week.


[1] The Hangyoreh. [Editorial] Nation faced with split due to free trade agreement. July 8, 2006. (http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/139627.html)

[2] Korea Times. Current Account Deficit Biggest in Nine Years. May 26, 2006. (http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200605/kt2006052617150211910.htm)

[3] Manifesto from the Suyu Research Institute on the S.Korea-USA FTA plans - The Twilight of Empire? Posted at (http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2006/05/manifesto -from-the-suyu-research-institute-on-the-skorea-usa-fta-plans-the-twilight-of-empire/).
May 12, 2006.

One Big Union?

Here's a story from the Hangyoreh on the recent vote to create an industry union among auto workers. I especially like the last line of the story, and am curious to see how things pan out because of it.

Hyundai, Daewoo, Kia company unions vote to industrialize: move means membership in large scale groups, more leverage

The company-based labor unions of Hyundai Motors Corp., GM Daewoo Auto & Technology, and Kia Motors, known as some of the strongest company-wide unions in South Korea, chose to be absorbed into some of the nation’s larger industrial unions.

The Federation of Korean Metal Workers Trade Unions, under the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, said that out of 39,966 unionized workers at Hyundai Motor participating in voting yesterday, 71.5 percent supported becoming part of the federation, one of Korea’s largest industrialized unions. To transition into an industrialized union, more than two-thirds of unionized workers must back the action.

Along with the Hyundai Motors Corp. union, the 9,000-member union of GM Daewoo and 10,000-strong union of Kia Motors also voted to become part of industrialized unions. Other unions, such as those at Doowon Precision Mechanics, Jinkwang ENC, and Daewoo Automobile Sales followed suit. Under the current wave of support, the Federation of Korean Metal Workers Trade Unions has swelled to more than 100,000 members.

“The move is meaningful because it has paved the way for the unions to strengthen their alliance in resolving labor problems beyond company walls, and in narrowing the gap between haves and have-nots,” said Lee Soo-bong, a spokesman at the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions.

However, Lee Dong-ung, senior vice president of the Korea Employers Federation, raised concern that the move may spark harsher labor-management relations. “Damages will occur due to repetitive negotiations, strikes, and other work stoppages,” Lee said.

Labor circles expect the move to prompt other company-based labor unions to pick up speed in switching over to an industrialized union.

Park Yoo-sun, planning director of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, said, “By October or November this year, more agreements will be made by confederations to switch to an industrialized union.”

By 2008, the industrialized unions will be integrated into four to five bigger industrialized unions, Park said.

The move is expected to bring big changes to labor negotiations between union and company management, allowing each labor union to raise questions about the industry’s overall problems. In addition, temporary workers, who have not been allowed membership in most company-wide labor unions, will be accorded the rights of union members.

KorUS FTA -- More Materials

An earlier post on the Korea America Free Trade Agreement negotiations currently underway in Washington linked to a number of info sources on the topic but I just thought I would add a few more.

The KCTU, FKTU, AFL-CIO and other American unions have a realeased a joint statement which you can read here; the KCTU has their own statement which you can view here as well. The documents point to deteriorating labour standards in both countries, points which have been well supported in both a recent speech by the head of the KCTU and an online solidarity campaign by the Building and Wood Workers International.

It seems that there is still a lot of resistance to casualization and irregularization of work in South Korea. The documents above point to some of the recent high profile cases such as the locked out KTX workers who have faced police violence in recent weeks. Just this week a union of both regular, irregular, and contract workers was also formed, becoming, at least formally, the first of its kind.

As for the FTA negotiations themselves, seems the national assembly is coming under pressure from many sectors, especially agriculture, for concluding a very whimpy first round, conceding to the US even in areas of apparent strength.

Korean Migrant Worker News -- Courtesy MWTV

As you can see by my volume of posts today, I'm finally back to regular posting and am trying to clear away a backlog of stuff that I've left by the way side while I moved. As most will probably know, it is really difficult to keep up to date with Korean social movement news in english because organizations switch sites frequently or loose steam and pass the job onto other groups. Years ago Base 21 was doing a great job, but eventually that too fell by the wayside, all its reporting lost, I guess, as the site now seems vacant.

Anyways, I just thought I'd mention the lovely job that Migrant Workers Television has been doing by broadcasting multilingual migrant worker (and some Korean) news each week. To top that off they reprint their scripts on their website (http://www.mwtv.or.kr). Seems there has been lots of news to report recently, including some positive news on changes in the law around foreign victims of domestic violence. There is also the negative news of more harrasment against migrants on the job the tragic injuries of migrants fleeing immigration crackdoes. For these stories and more please click on the links for MWTV english for May. Click here for their 20th broadcast script and here for their 19th.

Blind Masseurs Opposing Court's Decision

I had to post something briefly on this issue because I keep seeing video of blind masseurs jumping into the Han River off the Mapo bridge near where I live. They seem to have built a hanging platform and are occupying it. Police in boats seem to pick up whoever jumps.

As the Choson reports "

The Constitutional Court by a majority of seven to one [last] Friday ruled against a law that reserves the occupation of masseur for the blind or vision-impaired.

The court reasoned the law infringes on the freedom of occupation stipulated in the Constitution.

The ruling clears the way for anyone to become a masseur but may threaten the livelihood of vision-impaired masseurs. The Korean Masseurs Association said the ruling was tantamount to depriving visually disabled people of the only means to make a living. “It is the same as telling us to leave the country,” it said.

And, according to Arirang TV, protestors gathered in front of the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Monday. I also saw footage of them blocking the subway as well on tuesday, delaying trains substantially.

Curious how this issue will be resolved. This was the first I had heard of it.

In other news, the GNP seems to have won most of the municipal and regional seats in yesterday's election, but you can read about that just about anywhere.

Korea-America FTA -- Resources

I've come across a few resources lately on the Korea-America FTA that is currently being negotiated. Bilaterals.org, a site that is tracking the proliferation of bilateral trade agreements (a suppossed alternative to both the collective strength of developing countries and regional blocs at the WTO, as well as the WTO's own inertia) has a special page on the Korea - US FTA that seems to be updated frequently.

The Korean Alliance against the Korea-US FTA has an english site (NoFTA); however, besides a small inaugral position paper, there is not much content as of yet. Their Korean site, however, seems to have quite a lot of info. Gomediaction has an advertisement for their upcoming protest on June 3rd as well as info a number of events planned around the visit of a Korean delegation to the US to publicize the problems of the Han-Mi (Korea US) FTA.

Finally, the Korea Economic Institute (which seems to be a lobbying organization based in Washington, DC) has a US-Korea FTA Resource Center page with lots of links to testimony from various industry groups and other stakeholders -- well, uhem, actually more 'shareholders' than stakeholders seem to be represented.

UPDATE -- June 5th: Here's a longer story in the Asia Times on the arrival of the Korean delegation and some of the more conflictual negotiating areas.

Pyeongtaek Update: Letter from village headman

As a way to update our earlier posts on the continuing Pyeongtaek protests in South Korea, here's the link to a posting over a frog in a well from one of the arrested village 'headmen' involved in the protest.

High and Low

It's been a while since I've done some serious posting on this blog, mainly as I've been settling in to South Korea to do my doctoral research (yes, I do have a life outside of the blogosphere). At any rate, with jet lag and other adjustments having been made I'm only now able to begin contemplating issues and posting information. Thus, I have to apologize for all the reprints as of late, I was starting to feel like the Korea Herald's newswire. Then again, this blog is still largely a current affairs/events type blog, so what can you do?


Although I try to make my posts more newsy, the following are some general points on the issue of irregular labour which we've been covering quite a lot over the past year.

A while back while I was doing some research on the net on the non-regular workers bill I came across two interesting articles in the Korea times about the opposition of employer's groups to the upcoming bill on irregular employment. As you know that non-regular workers bill has been consecutively delayed due to opposition from all sides. The bill will basically put into law much of the flexibilization that already exists and pervades Korean society and to which labour are, justly, opposed and who feel the chance will have been missed to create new foundations for equitable rights and status for all workers. Albeit the bill is designed to iron out inequalities in some areas of contingent work, by putting minimums on the amount of time an employee can work temporarily in one workplace, but, without a general principle of 'equal pay for equal work' included in the bill it is hard to figure out how to prevent institutionalizing a dual labour market structure whereby some workers enjoy solid benefits and others are left precarious, even while doing the same job. By most indicators, inequality -- which is quite easily to see just by looking at the contrasts in housing type, mostly between middle class apartments and poorer houses or villas, in and around Seoul -- continues to expand, the topic of recent and fairly well done piece in the Korea times.

Now, the government may argue that it will pick up the slack by offering benefits in key areas of social security in return for the consent of labour groups to flexibilization, however, government policymakers aside, the surprise here is that private capital also seems to be against the formalization of flexibility and would prefer a business as usual approach, at least from what I can gander from the press. Business as usual here would mean that the contingent status of perhaps millions of workers would remain in a legal loophole, in other words, the business community has no coherent policy except to ignore the laws that currently exist and advocate that new laws not be created, thus relegating, or legally abandoning, the situation of contingent workers to very grey legal status. Seems the cost of having to pay those workers who have worked at particular firms full time for multiple years the full pay they deserve -- ie regularizing their employment status as a trade off for greater concessions for flexibility in the future and in other segments of the economy -- is not even viewed as preferable.

Employers actually threatened a "strike by capital" against the bill last February, claiming that they would continue to move overseas if the government continued to push the bill. Though such threats are normally kept in the back room, it seems that Korean employers were fine with printing this in the Korea Times which makes one wonder a bit how much they care about their public image or the role they want to be seen as playing in Korea's often very nationalist political economy. Or perhaps, the reason why the political economy is not seen as very nationalist these days may also have to do with the ways in the which the government is able to regulate its economy's financial structure. In other words, perhaps changes have been made that create less incentive for corporations to want to want to obey labour law once the stick of financial discipline has been removed. But this too, remains to be seen completely, and I myself, am left guessing at exactly where state capability or coherent political power in this area lies (perhaps a topic for further research).

Perhaps these are the beginning of the days when the international of capital will have to be met with a more coherent internationalization of labour, but then again, these trends are nothing new, segyehwa (or globalization) has been used quite a lot in introducing new plans and policies (remember the hub of Asia), but this form of internationalization does not normally follow a rhetoric of exit, it is more about the entry of capital. What is new, perhaps, is the way in which they being used in the public sphere as a threat of abandonment. Or maybe not, but if so, I'd like to see more examples.

Fearing another Hong Kong?

Here's an intesting story from today's Korea times. If you followed our previous posts on the Hong Kong protests in December, you'll see that the Korean government has a history of being anxious about its protestors travelling. I'm still settling down into my research role here but I'll try to provide more analysis on this issue and more in the coming weeks. -J



Activists Urged to Scrap Anti-FTA Rally in US
By Jung Sung-ki

Staff Reporter

The government on Friday urged the country’s labor organizations not to stage a rally in the United States against a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two
countries.

In a joint statement issued by five cabinet
ministers concerned with the FTA, the government denounced plans by
labor groups to dispatch a group of protesters to America.

The ministers said it would seriously damage the country’s international reputation and relations between the two allies.

They said they were also concerned that the
anti-FTA protest could cause inconvenience to all Korean people as it
may have a negative effect on the Seoul’s efforts to negotiate a
visa waiver program with Washington.

``We sincerely call on the organizations
preparing the protest rally to immediately scrap the plan, which is
damaging our national image and causing concern among the
public,’’ said the statement read by Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon.

Other signatories were Deputy Prime
Minister-Minister of Finance and Economy Han Duck-soo, Justice Minister
Chun Jung-bae, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Park Hoong-soo and
Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo.

``We urge the groups to express their position
and views about the FTA negotiations through peaceful and legitimate
processes,’’ Ban said.

The statement came as a group of South Korean
activists are planning to stage a rally protesting the scheduled
Korea-U.S. FTA meeting in Washington next month.

The group consists of members of various labor
and farmers' organizations, including the progressive Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions and the Coalition of Farmers'
Association, which sent a group of protesters to Hong Kong last
December to protest against a meeting of World Trade Organization (WTO)
ministers.

The statement said it is
``undesirable’’ for a handful of interest groups to
entirely oppose a crucial trade agreement for the future growth of the
country’s economy just because the pact is expected to create a
few problems.

``Free trade agreements are fast becoming a
global trend that no one can resist. The government has been working to
sign free trade agreements (with other nations) to prepare for the
changing global circumstances and to further advance our products in
the world market,’’ it said.

The statement said further liberalization, or an
FTA with the United States, was inevitable for South Korea, which
depends on foreign countries for more than 70 percent of its economy
and other affairs.

More than 180 FTAs have been signed between
countries worldwide and over 50 percent of global trade is now
conducted between nations relying on such trade agreements, officials
said.

Seoul and Washington jointly announced the start
of negotiations for an FTA in February, while setting the deadline for
the negotiations as June 2007. The first round of talks is to be held
next month.

In a related development, the government has
requested Washington's cooperation and leniency regarding the South
Korean protesters.

Washington replied that it will try to explain
U.S. law on street rallies to the South Koreans and that the United
States guarantees protest rallies as long as they are peaceful, said
Chung Dal-ho, ambassador for overseas and Korean affairs at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Chung said the government cannot and does not
wish to block peaceful rallies by South Koreans in other countries, but
said the ministers' joint statement is a ``sincere
request’’ for the organization to stop the plan because its
rally is highly likely to become violent considering its past record.

Onward!

I'm in the middle of a move right now, so I have not had much time to update recently. Below is a reprint from the Donga on recent mayday protests. By the end of this week I should by in SK so look forward to some more detailed and original updates soon. I've also recently switched to a mac so there may be some glitches for a bit (a perhaps a move to a different blog provider) but we'll see how that goes... --J




Unions Celebrate May Day With Protests



MAY 02, 2006 03:00
by Eun-Woo Lee ( libra@donga.com)


The Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) held various events and gatherings yesterday, marking the 116th Labor Day.

The KCTU hosted an event to commemorate World Labor Day, arguing for the abolition of the bill on irregular workers and a roadmap for advancing laws and systems on labor-management relations and free medical service and education, and against a Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The event started at 3:00 p.m. in Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall with more than 10,000 people in attendance.


The KCTU announced in the event, “Neo-liberalism is threatening workers’ existences, and we should set up strong battle lines to fight against it.”


Prior to the gathering, each union held preliminary rallies in Cheonggye Plaza and Seoul Station Plaza in the morning.


For its part, the FKTU hosted a marathon commemorating the Labor Day jointly with Sohn Ki-jeong Foundation. The marathon started in Jamsil Stadium, Seoul at 10:00 a.m.


The sporting event, which marked the 60th anniversary of the FKTU’s establishment and the 70th anniversary of Sohn’s winning a gold medal in the marathon in the Berlin Olympics, attracted about 12,000 workers and citizens.


The two organizations also held events celebrating Labor Day in other major cities, including Incheon, Busan, Daegu and Gwangju.


Meanwhile, Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo said in an interview with a radio program on May 1, “If the passage of the bill on irregular workers is delayed, measures for (labor) reform will also be delayed.”


The bill was expected to pass the National Assembly in April, but its passage is being delayed due to conflicts between the ruling and the opposition parties over the amendment for the private schools law and the opposition from the Millennium Democratic Party.

Migrant Trade Union Chief Anwar Hossain Freed!

April 25, 2006- Seoul, Korea

Anwar Hossain, President of the Migrants' Trade Union, was released from immigration detention today at about 5:45 pm after spending the last 11 months in Cheonju Detention Center. The Korean government cited his deteriorating health and two pending court cases as reasons for his release. Anwar was released on an open bond- the MTU paid the Korean government about $500 US Dollars for Anwar's release in exchange for an open-ended visa so that Anwar can receive medical treatment and recove rfrom his time spent in detention. There is no time limit on his stay in Korea.Anwar was greeted by more than 200 supporters and migrant workers upon his release. In a statement he gave to the Korean press, he said that he will keep fighting until every last migrant is free from detention and can have the freedom that he has today.

Tomorrow Anwar will be admitted to the hospital to receive much needed medical treatment for injuries sustained during his arrest, as well as health issues that he suffered while in jail.Anwar's release was unexpected and the news came after a week in which 4 migrant workers in Korea died trying to escape immigration crackdowns and another died while on the job. Pressure, within Korea and from abroad, hasbeen intensifying against the Korean government to release Anwar and stopthe violent crackdown on migrant workers.

The MTU would like to thankeveryone who has sent letters on Anwar's behalf, attended protests andrallies and helped in innumerable other ways. Anwar's release would nothave been possible without their help.The MTU is calling on all workers in Korea and around the world to uniteso that all may be free from oppression and discrimination. We at the Migrants' Trade Union firmly believe that an injustice to one is aninjustice to all and we will continue to fight together to free everyonefrom oppression.

Pyeongtaek Unrest Continues

Looks like things went to hell yesterday in Pyeongtaek; meaning, it looks like the police, army, or whoever have finally evicted everyone. Who are these guys with the riot shields? they don't look familiar to me, are they construction workers, hired thugs --as in gangs-- or some special deputies or police I haven't heard about?

You can read more about this issue and the previous protests on our blog here and here. The Korea Herald ran a story on the topic today as well, Farmers injured in base protest. There were more than farmers involved from what I can gander from this post in Korean of pictures and a report from the protest. I looks like unionists and other protestors were involved. The pictures of the roadblock and the man under the truck are disturbing and difficult to figure out (was he blocking it or was he run over?). I'm looking forward to finding more stories in English on exactly what went down. Seems there are lots of injuries.

Spring Labour Struggle

An update from Koilaf on some upcoming labour issues.

Labor unions have threatened to launch an all-out struggle against the government and management next month over thorny labor issues, including an irregular workers bill and wage hikes.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) intends to call a general strike next week attempting to block the passage of the controversial bill during a plenary session at the National Assembly.

The country’s largest umbrella labor group, representing more than 800,000 workers, staged large-scale rallies earlier this month after the bill was approved by the Assembly’s environment and labor committee.

Relations between government, management and labor are expected to worsen further as rail and subway workers have also vowed to strike again unless management accepts their demands for better working conditions and greater labor rights.

Public transport workers staged a four-day walkout earlier this month, disrupting the nation’s transportation services, and causing public inconvenience. They returned to work, yielding to negative public sentiment and a tough police crackdown.

The unions are also drifting toward a head-on clash with management, over demands for wage rises and negotiations on reinstatement of dismissed union representatives.

read more...


The KCTU is expected to begin a 10-day strike on April 3, to urge the Assembly not to pass the non-regular workers bill, which it claims would increase the number of temporary workers.

They have also called on the government to revise its labor policy to be more worker-friendly and stop its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with the United States. They argue an FTA with the U.S. would further aggravate the plight of farmers and irregular workers.

The Korea Rail Workers Union has also decided to, again, take collective action, saying the state-run Korea Railroad (Korail) has been indifferent to their demands, including reinstating fired workers and converting attendants of the Korea Train Express into regular workers.

The strike by unionized Korail workers is feared to disrupt passenger and freight services across the country for another time, forcing people to find alternative transport and causing financial loss to rail-reliant companies.

Also, shuttle bus workers in Seoul and Kyonggi Province plan to strike next month as they have failed to reach an agreement with management over wage increase.

Business organizations and labor unions are on collision course as they differ widely over various contentious labor issues.

The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) has asked its member companies not to pay labor union leaders from next year.

Employers have so far paid union leaders’ salaries but, under a new law, they will be ineligible for wages from their companies from 2007.

The KEF has also said it would not allow the unions a say in management, and it is solely up to management whether to hire, and how many non-regular workers they want to hire.

But the KCTU and another umbrella labor group, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), said they would stage an all-out struggle against employers, saying management’s stance on labor is unacceptable.

Management and labor also widely differ over wage hikes this year.

The KEF suggested employers raise wages by about 2.6 percent, a sharp contrast to the 9.6 percent hike demanded by the FKTU.

The employers’ organization even asked companies, suffering from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, and high oil prices, to freeze wages this year.

Restless Pyeongtaek

[Update (Mar 21'06) -- Here's the link to an Amnesty International report on the incident below.]

You may remember that a while ago we covered some of the protests against the expansion of the US army base in Pyeongtaek. We haven't posted much on this issue since then as we've been more focused with labour issues and haven't covered some of the other issues at hand. It seems that meanwhile as local culture of resistance has continued in Pyeongtaek, with activists and locals defending the villages of Daechuri and Doduri, and several ensuing confrontations with police and military as these forces attempt to seal off the contested land. As you may remember from our original post above and the many background links connected to it, the Yongsan base in Seoul is being relocated to Pyeongtaek and this partly what the uproar is about. There are many perspectives on the issues and I would encourage readers to do some background reading on them, but below I shall reprint a rather urgent message and two updates sent by the Daechuri English Media Collective describing the current state of confrontation.

The Daechuri collective connect the expansion to the Project For a New American Century (PNAC) and see as a larger part of the consolidation of American Military Hegemony in Northeast Asia in general and Korea in particular. This is a controversial interpretation which perhaps renders extreme geopolitical significance to a local issue that is indeed a little more complicated. Moving the Yongsan garrision out of Seoul seems to me to signal that the South Korean government increasing independance in foreign policy issues, at least regarding the North, however, this relative independence in policy issues regarding the north has entail some participation in US adventures in Iraq and thus speaks to more complicated and complicit geopolitics than simple American domination. These words of caution aside, the fight brewing in Pyeongtaek is sure to reverberate for some time, and speaks to some real issues of regional disparity, forced displacement, and issues of police violence -- all of which are complicated by both national and geopolitical dynamics but, in my opinion, not solely reducible to one or the other. Thus, it seems important to publicize these events, especially as the protestors own description of the events rarely make it into the international press. Below are the original messages from the Daechuri collective including today's update.

Autonomous Village Under Siege by Korean Troops Rhizome Collective // Daechuri English Media Collective
08 Mar 2006 17:06 GMT

On March 6th, 2006, South Korean military riot police began an attack on the autonomous village of Daechuri. For over four years, Daechuri and the nearby community of Doduri have defiantly resisted the siezure of their homes and fields for the expansion of an United States Army base. Barracaded inside the elementary school, rice farmers, elderly residents, and peace activists are holding out against sporadic, sometimes intense attacks by Korea's elite military police force. International support is needed to pressure the Korean government to halt its brutal assault. Utilizing tractors as road blocks, human shields chained to the school gates, and the courage of a people fighting for their homes and lives, they have, so far, resisted wave after wave of attacks by hundreds of military riot police.

Residents and peace activists have suffered beatings and arrests, while inside the school, activists upload news updates, video of the attacks, and make pleas for immediate aid. They are exhausted and dehydrated, and in need of reinforcements and supplies. International observers, journalists, and anyone with a phone or a computer can take action now.The expansion of U.S. Army base Camp Humphreys (K-6) is part of the Global Repositioning Plan, first outlined by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and later adopted as the Bush Administration's strategy for consolidating its military hegemony over Northeast Asia. Opposition to the expansion of the base has come from many diverse currents within Korean society. Apart from community displacement, many have also highlighted issues including the devastating environmental impact of US bases, the violent crimes committed by US troops stationed on the peninsula, the issue of human trafficking and forced prostitution which surrounds the bases, and the potential for a new arms race that could destabilize all of Northeast Asia. Future Updates: Antigizi SavePTfarmers savePTfarmers email GreenKorea.org PeaceKorea.org Peoples Tribunal Sarangbang Anarclan See Also Video [1] [2] Portland Indymedia: Story Audio

Currently, Camp Humphreys occupies 3,734 acres. However, in December 2004 the Korean government pledged to give over an additional 2,851 acres for the base facilities. But this land is flat, rich farm land stretching as far as the horizon. With this new expansion, some 1,372 residents will be driven off their land. Many are elderly people in the 60s and 70s. Fifty years ago these communities lost their land as 2 foreign forces (first Japanese, then American) built and expanded the base. Now for the 3rd time they will experience being forced off their own land. The Korean Ministry of National Defence (MND), has publicly declared that it will make the houses unlivable and the land untillable. If anyone touches an empty house they will be fined. To prevent people from engaging in agriculture the water lines have been cut and barbed wire has been laid. Residents and Korean peace organizations have been fighting the proposed expansion through legal means since 2001, all the while being deceived and ignored by officials, which finally prompted them to take matters into their own hands. In Feb 2005, Nomads for Peace "Peace Wind" moved into the village and initiated a variety of supportive activities while living with the residents.

Last March, NGOs from all over Korea formed a Counter Measures Comittee to join with the residents of Pyongtaek in educational programs, publicity and solidarity actions. Eventually weary of the struggle, some villagers accepted the compensation money and left, others were intimidated into fleeing, but many farmers and their families refused to surrender their homes and livelihood to a foreign power's imperial ambitions. A national campaign formed, including a tractor driven "Peace Pilgrimage", as well as massive solidarity rallies. In November of '05, two Korean farmers died at the hands of riot police in Seoul. In December, 2005, the Land Expropriation Committee approved the "imminent domain" seizure of Daechuri, Doduri and the surrounding fields. The farmers' existence on their own land was now illegal. Outraged and dissillusioned with the corrupt beaurocracy of an indifferent government, in February, farmers marched to Pyeongtaek city hall and burned their "residency cards", renounced their Korean citizenship and declared Daechuri an autonomous region.

Within this rebel territory, a vibrant community has flourished. Artists, musicians, peace activists, and religious leaders have joined with the residents, repairing and occupying vacant houses, and creating a "Peace Village". Murals of hope and resistance have appeared on blank walls, flags and banners opposing the American base expansion and U.S. imperialsim hang throughout the town. Traditional, shamanistic "totem poles" were carved in order to chase out the evil spirits plaguing the farmers. Every day, for over 550 days, residents and visitors have gathered in the Peace Village for a candlelight vigil. Famous Korean entertainers have made appearances and popular musicians held concerts to highlight the cause and encourage the farmers to continue fighting. Faced with the greatest tragedy of their lives, the villagers and their supporters have created a community of inspirational beauty and powerThese peaceful farming communities are now being uprooted and brutalized due to American military expansion. Attacks against the village by Korean authorities will continue until the U.S. withdraws its proposal for base expansion. Only massive international solidarity can save this land.

Update 1
9:30am, March 15. Two backhoes begin gutting the rice paddies on the far side of the fields. Nearly one thousand riot police stand attentive at the edge of the field, armed with batons and shields. Thousands more are posted around the periphery of the village. An untold number wait at adjacent Camp Humphreys Army base, while hundreds monitor street intersections and key access points to the area, preventing any tractors or farming equipment to arrive for the March 17 spring cultivation. As the supporters realize that the destruction has already begun, they race down the long narrow concrete path that divides the vast fields. It snowed the past few days, and the paddies ar thick with mud.

Protestors immediately surround the machines, who halt their excavating so as not to crush anyone. Someone climbs on top of the giant arm and secures himself to it. Elderly women lie down in front of the massive treads while people attempt to get inside the cab of the backhoe. The crowd of people split in two to confront each machine. The riot police stand at the edge of the fields, motionless, awaiting orders. There is a scuffle between an agitator and a protestor, and they tumble into the eight foot pit carved from formerly fertile soil. Video and still cameras point in all directions, daring the police or plain-clothed thugs to commit an atrocity under the gaze of the "media." Unable to continue the digging, the machines stand idle as people surrounding them are shouting and crying. The residents of Daechuri have feared this moment for years, the day their land would be transformed into dead earth, a mere platform for the U.S. military to expand its operational base and recreational facilities. Suddenly, the backhoes begin moving again, but instead of continuing their excavation the backhoes begin refilling the pits with the dirt that they had just removed.

Elation passes through the crowd upon seeing these workers disobey their orders and follow their hearts. Then the military riot police move into action, marching around the section of the field, cutting off all sides. They occupy two bridges, to prevent any more protestors in the village from joining. For a while there is a stand off. An eighty-year-old woman feignts and is taken to the hospital. The police begin to arrest people. Many protestors resist and are beaten down. Elderly villagers hurl mud at the police. Some people on the edges of the field cut through parts of the fence and set small fires on the army base. The struggle continues for hours, with police surronding the backhoes now covered with activists, with neither side gaining or losing much ground. Before nightfall, the police backed off, the day had been won, the fields still exist. Overall, 40 people are arrested. Many are injured, with broken wrists and ankles. At least two are still hospitalized in serious condition. Injured, exhausted, and running low on supplies and reinforcements, the residents of Daechuri and supporters of the Peace Village fear what will come tomorrow. There is word that the police will attack the elementary school again, the headquarters for the Peace Village. They desparately need more people to help defend.

Update 2
March 16th
More than 40 arrested today, the situation is urgent!!
Today on march 15, the second attack by the korean government was made against the farmers in Pyeongtaek region.lots of people got injured by ploice brutality.6 people hospitalized; some of them had their wrist broken, strained ligament, injured backbone, etc..about 40 activists and residents were arrested resisting the government's destruction of the farmland.they are still in police custidy.we hope most of them can be released after 48 hours without charges.situation is very bad here.the government brought 5,000 riot police to attack the land this time, and we were seriously outnumbered.there were only at most 500 people to defend the land.it is highly expected that the korean government continue its attack on the farmers and activists tomorrow.so if you're reading this, please come to Daechuri and Doduri NOW!

by way of update

Haven't had much time to update lately. But the strike is over and the temporary workers bill is still delayed. So, in some ways, the strike was successful. I'm reprinting a brief summary below. Kotaji, sharp as always, has also provided an updated post on the strike.

Korean Temp Worker Bills Blocked for Now
ICM

A general strike last week by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and a pro-labour panel of lawmakers working inside a plenary session of South Korea’s National Assembly blocked three bills regarding non-regular workers from reaching final approval.

The strikes, in which tens of thousands of workers took part, occurred on Tuesday and Thursday, 28 February and 2 March. (1 March was an official Korean holiday.) The lawmakers, primarily from the progressive Democratic Labor Party, took over a parliamentary session on 2 March to temporarily derail passage. The bills were approved by the Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee on 27 February, but action in the streets and inside the plenary session prevented final approval prior to the Assembly closing its session on 2 March.

The issue is certain to meet further review and more public protests when the Assembly reconvenes on 20 March in an extraordinary session. The proposed legislation would do little to improve conditions for temporary and agency workers, but instead would give employers’ the flexibility to use hundreds of thousands more non-permanent workers and laying them off prior to the end of a proposed two-year period after which they must be made permanent.

Follow-up to 'Death of a Farmer'

In the 'Birthday' post, the article about Jeon Yong-cheol's death was brought up, which reminded me that I'd found a number of articles that followed up on the deaths of the farmers, but hadn't gotten around to posting them. I decided to add them to the original post as updates, but thought I'd post them here as well. After the blame was put on the police for the deaths of two farmers due to injuries received in the Nov. 15 protest, the police chief was forced to resign and the police pressured to change how they acted. This led to protests by supporters of the police (and in the media) who blamed protesters for the violence. A government panel to promote peaceful protests was formed, and an anti-base protest which was carried on peacefully with restraint on both sides was lauded as, perhaps, the beginning of a new era. Though I'm not entirely certain it will last, it would seem the accusations and blame hurled at Korean protesters and riot police over the past few months may have led both sides to reflect upon their tactics.

Here's a timeline, from where the Jeon Yong-cheol article left off:

Dec. 16: The police finally admit the possibility that Jeon Yong-cheol died as the result of being hit by riot police at a farmers' protest.

Dec. 18: Hong Deok-pyo, a farmer injured during the November 15 Yeouido protest, dies of his injuries.

Dec. 26: The National Human Rights Commission concludes that Jeon Yong-cheol and Hong Deok-pyo died from injuries inflicted by riot police during the Nov. 15 rally.

Dec. 27: President Roh apologizes on television for the actions of the police, but also criticizes the violent actions of the protesters. Police Chief Huh Joon-young also apologizes, but refuses to voluntarily step down.

Dec. 28: Police Chief Huh is pressed to resign by members of Uri party and the DLP.

Dec. 29: Despite saying he would not, Police Chief Huh resigns, saying he did not want to "burden the administration".

Jan. 7 & 8: Families of riot police hold protests against violent protests.

January 15: A plan to have riot police wear name tags while on duty is announced by the National Police Agency. It draws a great deal of criticism before being withdrawn.

Jan. 19: A government panel is formed to promote peaceful rallies, saying a policy package is due in April.

Feb 12: A protest in Pyeongtaek against the relocation of US bases there is celebrated for being non-violent.

struggle against casualization and privatization not over yet

Some interesting developments in the struggle against the non-regular workers bill and other forms of Korean neoliberalism to report. Korean rail workers are on the second day of their strike in support of fired workers, pay equity and against privatization as part of a larger series of actions against the upcoming bill on the protection of non-regular workers (which is actually a bill to expand irregular work, according to most). Labour protests continue to delay the bill. Apparently members of the DLP have occupied a meeting room in the parliament building, and according to Kotaji, even some conservative politicians are having second thoughts. Meanwhile, workers have mounted a sit-in in front of the National Assembly as part of the KCTU's general strike against the bill.

More on this issue in the coming days...

Story on NK Industrial Zone in the NY Times

Heads up to NoCHR for alerting us to this story. For more analysis see our post, Zonal Strategies, below.

For managers, a Korean paradise
By James Brooke The New York Times

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2006
KAESONG, North Korea In a cavernous factory floor here, where hundreds of North Korean women diligently cut and sewed women's jackets Monday, a South Korean businessman seemed to have found Korea's answer to China: wages at 26 cents an hour.

"Kaesong has more advantages that Vietnam, China or Guatemala," Hwang Woo Seung, president of Shinwon Ebenezer Company, said, citing other countries where his company produces clothes. "We opened here last March and we are already starting to build another factory here twice the size of this one."

If the leaders of the two Koreas have their way, Hwang's factory, with its 326 North Korean workers and seven South Korean managers, will represent the economic future of the peninsula.

"Kaesong Industrial Park, a place where the South's capital and technology and the North's land and labor are being combined to a make a new prosperity," an American-accented voice announced on a peppy information video shown to the first group of foreign reporters to tour the site, only several hundred meters north of the demilitarized zone.

Almost four years after the initial agreement for the park, the legal and infrastructure building blocks finally seem to be in place for explosive growth. Over the next year, the number of South Korean factories and North Korean workers is to nearly quadruple, to 39 factories and 15,000 employees.

By 2012, the industrial park is to spread over 67 square kilometers, or 26 square miles, and to employ 730,000 North Koreans, almost 8 percent of the work force in this impoverished nation, which has a total population of 23 million.

Last month, a South Korean telephone company opened the first 340 of 10,000 planned lines to here. Next month, work is to start on a tenfold increase in the power supplied by South Korea, to 154,000 kilowatts. Last fall, to iron out bureaucratic difficulties for South Korean and other foreign investors, South Korea opened its first government office in the North here.

When 50-year leases for building lots were auctioned off last summer, there were, on average, four South Korean companies vying for each plot. With labor costs rising in South Korea, many owners of small and medium-sized factories, say they face two options: closing and moving to China, or closing and moving to Kaesong.

"We have plans to build a factory here four times the size of this complex," Oh Sung Chang, senior managing director of Taesung Hata Company, a manufacturer of packaging for cosmetics, said after walking reporters past plastic molding and cutting machines manned by North Korean workers. Noting that he plans to start construction this summer, he added: "The Northern side has been very cooperative."

The North, after initial reluctance, has thrown its weight behind the isolated nation's largest center of foreign investment.

"We will bring peace and prosperity to the Korean Peninsula through the Kaesong Industrial Complex," Kim Hyo Jeong, a North Korean official serving on the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee, told reporters Monday.

According to North Korean propaganda, the North is a worker's paradise. But after 60 years of communism and Kim family dynastic rule, the North looks like a manager's paradise.

Not only are the wages the lowest in Northeast Asia, but independent labor unions are banned.

"Strikes?" Hwang replied dismissively in response to a reporter's question. Raising crossed arms, he said with a slight smile: "Absolutely not."

"North Korean workers are very skilled, and that is why we decided to move here," Moon Chang Seop, president of Sam Duk Starfield, a Pusan- based shoe manufacturer. Noting that shoe manufacturing "is getting small" in South Korea, he said he hoped to one day move his entire line to Kaesong.

For now, Kaesong's 11 factories are producing almost entirely for the South Korean market.

To grow as planned, the park will have to win access to world markets. With North Korea's nuclear weapons program provoking opposition in Japan, Europe and the United States, the threat of commercial sanctions against North Korean products hangs over any investment. At the same time, South Korea hopes that products made here will be eligible to enter the United States under any free-trade pact that may be negotiated with the United States. (read more...)

After free-trade talks were announced last month, U.S. officials discouraged the idea of duty access for products made in this part of North Korea.

"In our view, the agreement applies to goods produced only in South Korea and the United States," an U.S. Embassy official in Seoul told reporters. "We hope that the Kaesong issue won't be a major hurdle in reaching the comprehensive goal of signing the free-trade agreement."

In the United States, American labor and human rights activists may object to employment conditions here.
At Kaesong, the minimum wage for the 48-hour week is $57.50. But $7.50 is deducted for "social charges" paid to the North Korean government. The remaining $50 is paid to a North Korean government labor broker. None of the South Korean factory managers interviewed would guess how much of the $50 salary ends up in the pockets of workers.

"The exact amount is determined by North Korean authorities," said Kim Dong Keun, a South Korean who chairs the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee.

Under labor contracting arrangements in Russia and Eastern Europe, North Korea's government often withholds half of their workers' salaries.

Attempts to interview seamstresses at the Shinwon, factory elicited evasive responses and intervention by South Korean guides.

"No interviews with North Korean officials or employees are allowed," Mira Sun, the foreign press aide to South Korea's president, Roh Moo Hyun, lectured reporters by loudspeaker in one bus after reporters tried to interview seamstresses.

Alternatives for North Korean workers appears to be bleak.

Although the two Koreas speak the same language and share the same history up until 1945, 60 decades of communism has created, in economic terms, a Bangladesh living alongside a Belgium.

Beyond the shiny new factories and busy construction sites of the industrial park, visitors peering beyond a 5-mile long green wire perimeter fence could glimpse a tableaux reminiscent of Breughel paintings of pre-Industrial Europe. In one field, about 20 people were bent over their hoes. An ox cart creaked down a lane carrying winter feed, while a man with a load of brush on his back trudged down a path.

Zonal strategies

I'm going to reprint a short article on some efforts to expand the joint industrial zone between north and south Korea. Seems there is a lot of bipartisan unity on this issue. As Kotaji remarked in a comment to an earlier post, the prospect of economically integrating North Korea could be a boom for South Korean capital. In a climate where they no longer benefit from strategic finance they recieved during the past, the Chaebol are definitely pushing to have their obligations to workers restructured so as to save more on labour. However, Korean social movements have resisted this tendancy for the last 7 years, after witnessing what concessions on labour restructuring can bring in the wake of the 1997 crisis. Hence, over the last year we've seen several serious struggles not simply over the attempt to introduce national legislation expanding irregular work, but also policies like rice liberalisation which promise to expand the supply of workers migrating to the cities. Why not bypass these problems by creating special zones to harness the power of, potentially, a considerably more docile and politically repressed supply? I'm still not sure what the future may bring. It will depend on a number of factors such as the 6-party talks, NK's own strategy, the SK labour and student movement among others. At any rate, it seems for the moment SK wants to expand these zones (to 600,000 workers), the US aren't keen on the subject, and labour has so far been quiet (from what I can gander from the English press).

From the Korea Times:

Bill on Inter-Korean SEZ Pushed
By Lee Jin-wooStaff Reporter
Feb 13 2006

A group of 100 ruling and opposition party lawmakers Monday submitted a bill aimed at setting up an inter-Korean special economic zone near the heavily fortified border bisecting the two Koreas.

``The bill is based on a long-term strategy to construct a joint economic community which will mutually benefit both South and North Korea,’’ said Rep. Yim Tae-hee of the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP).
Yim said, ``Invaluable lessons we learned from trials and errors of the Kaesong industrial complex in the North will surely help us carry out the plan successfully and further promote inter-Korean relations.’’

The lawmakers who signed the bill include 16 legislators from the ruling Uri Party, 76 from the GNP and 4 from the minor opposition Democratic Party (DP).

As an initial, short-term step, the bill aims to establish the envisioned industrial zone, which is similar to the Kaesong complex, in Paju, Kyonggi Province, located near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Yim said in a press release.

In the bill, the lawmakers also proposed to jointly expand the boundary of the economic cooperative area from the port city of Haeju in South Hwanghae Province, North Korea, to Inchon, west of Seoul.

They called for the establishment of a government agency to encourage certain industries, including tourism and information-technology, and environmentally friendly businesses with various benefits in the designated area.
The lawmakers said they target to complete the legislation of the bill in the first half of this year.

The bill said the establishment of the economic zone will help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and provide a chance for North Korea to learn about the market economy.

It's our birthday (sort of)

On February 23rd this blog turned one year old. I was too busy to post anything that day so this is really a belated birthday post. It's been a good year, and I'd say that we've been relatively successful in that we've managed to post, on average, more than once a week for the last year. Besides putting up many smaller posts on current events involving Korean social movements, we also managed to contribute a number of unique commentaries of our own that have either been prepared for print or were original posts that recieved wider circulation. Often, the events that we have covered in these stories have been ongoing and you can see their development through other stories in the archives.

Here's a sample of some of the stories that I think are our best work. If you are a new reader to this blog than these stories will give you a sense of some of the issues that we've covered, and if you are a returning reader, we'll here's a reminder of where we've been and, hopefully, where we'll continue to go in the future.

Our story on the struggle over the expansion of irregular work, Against Flexibilization, was our most thorough exploration of the proliferation of non-regular work in South Korea and the fight against it -- a fight that continues to this day as the National Assembly is still trying to introduce the legislation. This story has definitely gotten the most attention on this blog as it continues to unfold. Likewise, an overview on the migrant workers struggle, the new minjung, also dealt with this topic in the sense that the expanding use of foreign migrant labour is a form of labour restructuring in itself and migrants groups, such as the MTU, continue to struggle for rights and equality in South Korea.

Matt, our other contributor, has put up some great posts as well. His posts on conscientious objectors in South Korea got a lot of attention and he is planning some important updates on this story in the future. His story North Korea's attempts to control the spread of information is also indicative of his good work. In the aftermath of the APEC and rice liberalization protests (two interrelated issues), Matt was quick to write about the public reaction to the death of Jeon Yong Cheol during a scuffle with police. Kotaji and I also tried to weigh in on the topic with a story in Japan Focus about some of the points of focus of the APEC protests and the protests that were about to follow in Hong Kong.

Well, those are my picks for some birthday reading. Hopefully we'll have lots more for you next year. Thanks for reading!

Here we go again

I really haven't been posting much lately. There are some pros and some cons to this. The con is that I haven't been keeping our loyal readers up to date on some recent developments, the pro is that I've been working hard planning my own research (yes I do have a life beyond this blog) which will, in the long run, supply you with more analysis of Korean labour and social movements than the more news oriented posts I put up lately.

In case you haven't noticed, however, the KCTU has called for another general strike against the bill on temporary workers. In fact I think every story on our labourstart newsire at the moment is on this topic. We've covered this issue perhaps more than any other on this blog -- just pick an archive and you'll see this for yourself so I'm not going to link to our previous posts. However, here's a short article from the Korea Herald with some general info on the strike and why the KCTU thinks the legislation is unfair. Ironically, some employers are also against the law they think it is too pro labour and have proposed a strike of their own. Strange bedfellows, it seems.

Also, thursday will be this blog's one year anniversary so I'll try to put up a birthday post in the future. Also look forward to an upcoming post on conscientious objectors from Matt (yes there is more to this blog than labour issues).

Chinese Unions, Protesting Stars, and New Writing on North Korea

A bit of a miscellaneous posting today.

First, here's an interesting article in yesterday's Choson Ilbo about pressure from the All China Federation of Trade Unions for a collective bargaining agreement at Hyundai's China operation. Very interesting indeed. I'm really not sure what this spells out for the future of working class organization in China, but it is very signficant because it seems that something is indeed going on in regards to skilled labour there. There is indeed a level of repression against popular protest in China, but if it is to deserve the developmental state label which it has lately been garnering, the existence of collective bargaining structure would run against our conventional understanding of labour as demobilized within that model. Could the ACFTU be heading down a social corporatist path? It's too early to tell. I'm also curious what this means for workers in India, where Hyundai motors is expected to roll out its millionth car this month. The threat of more docile labour to be found in China may be running out.

Today's second item is a story from Labourstart Korea's newsire and is on Korean movie stars and filmakers protesting South Korea's plans to abolish its screen quota as part of their bilateral free trade agreement with the United States. On Monday, South Korea's top movie star, Jang Dong-gun, held a one-man protest at the Gwanghwamun intersection in downtown Seoul. Choi Min-shik, another well-known film star and my personal favorite, held his own protest there on Tuesday, returning a government medal he had recieved for his work.



Finally, Kotaji has a link to an article in this month's ISJ about some recent writing on NK by the Korean internationalist left, and written by Kotaji himself. Should be a good read, I can't wait to get to it myself.

Reunification: maybe?

Below I'm reprinting some recent testimony to the US congress from Christine Ahn, of the US based Oakland Institute, on Korean reunification. I'm not exactly sure which committee she was testifying to or its significance, but it think it provides a nice general overview as well as personal and anecdotal account of some of the changing moods in South Korea toward the North, though it might perhaps read a bit rosier than others might have put it, glossing over some of the current complexities of political power on both ends the pennisula. Click 'view full posting' to read the article.

Good Morning America, Korea is Reunifying
by Christine Ahn
January 31, 2006

On my recent trip to South Korea last November, I was struck by how much reunification was in the air. I first got this impression as I waited at customs at Incheon International Airport. Looming above me were large flat screen TVs beaming a Samsung cell phone commercial with two of Korea’s most popular female stars, South Korea’s pop icon Lee Hyo-Ri and North Korean dancer Jo Myung-Ae. In the commercial, the two superstars sing a song about parted lovers, and the lyrics go something like, “Someday we will meet again, although no one knows where we’re going, someday we will meet again, in this very image of us separated.” As they hold hands during the concert, the new blue One Korea peninsula flag rolls down behind them. As they turn to watch the flag, Lee Hyo-Ri’s voice says in the background, “That day I was so nervous…because the story wasn’t just about the two of us.”

Here was Samsung, one of Korea’s most powerful corporations, popularizing reunification. But the South Korean government was also sending a clear message to all foreigners landing on Korean soil: reunification is happening, slowly, but surely.

When I told my young South Korean friend how emotional I felt as a Korean-American watching that commercial, he said that even before it was broadcast, Koreans were talking about it all over the internet. He also told me that nearly all blockbuster films in South Korea are about the Korean War, North Korea or reunification, and that North Korean characters are now humanized, compared with a few years ago when they only appeared as villains. One such film, Taegukki, a revisionist historical film about the war, still holds the number one spot in ticket sales. Eleven out of 50 million South Koreans, or 1 in 5, have seen Taeguki. Reunification is happening, my friend said, and no one—not even the election of a conservative South Korean president—will be able to turn the tide.

Another major cultural icon, Cho Yong Pil, considered the most popular singer for the past 25 years has also helped influence popular perceptions about North Korea. Several years ago, I asked him what he thought about reunification, and he told me it could not be achieved until the elders passed due to the deep pain they still harbored from the Korean War. To my surprise, last August, he performed a concert in Pyongyang. Many South Koreans told me this was huge, more than a South Korean president visiting North Korea, because he is so beloved by every Korean irrespective of age, class, religion, or ideology.

Public Opinion Polls

Although these may seem like random examples, they actually correspond with recent public opinion polls taken in South Korea. The Korea Institute for National Unification, or KINU, a national research policy institute, recently conducted a public opinion poll of 1000 South Koreans citizens and 300 leaders from political, media and civil organizations. It found that 84 percent of the public and 96 percent of opinion leaders believed that unification was an urgent task for the nation, and 85 percent of the general public and 95 percent of opinion leaders approved of North-South economic cooperation.

Political, Cultural, Economic Exchanges

Although complete reunification may still be a distant dream, Koreans from the North and South are taking measured steps towards realizing it. On June 17, the South Korean Minister of Unification met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and urged North Korea to return to the six-way talks. In return, South Korea promised to give North Korea two million kilowatts of electricity, the amount that would have been generated by the two light water reactors promised by the United States under the 1994 Agreed Framework.

For the five-year anniversary of the June 15 declaration, hundreds of Koreans from around the world convened in North Korea to celebrate the achievements made towards reunification. And on August 15th, on the 60th anniversary of liberation from Japan, dozens of Koreans gathered in the north to commemorate this important date.

Tourism has also been booming in North Korea. In 2005, over 275,000 South Korean tourists visited Mt. Kumgang resort in North Korea, bringing the total to over 1.1 million. That year, over 10,000 Koreans, not counting tourists, had social and cultural exchanges in the north, a doubling from 2002 to 2004, when an average of 5,000 Koreans met per year. Together, they reconstructed Buddhist temples and Christian churches, and held meetings to discuss intellectual property rights of literature and a common dictionary. Last year, North Koreans watched a South Korean opera, and this year, South Koreans will watch “Sa-yuk-shin,” a North Korean drama on TV.

Perhaps the most emotional aspect of this historic process is the meeting of families, many who have not seen their relatives in over 50 years. Last year, 660 separated family members were reunited in person, and 800 family members were able to see and speak to each other through webcast, a new technology that has helped the elderly who can no longer travel far distances.

And if there is any indication of how the South Korean business community feels about reunification, let’s just say that South Koreans are putting money where their mouths are. Economic exchange between North and South Korea grew almost 60 percent in one year, exceeding $875 million in 2005. And just from the Kaesong joint-industrial zone, over $11 million of manufactured goods were exported to South Korea in 2005, including steel pots and pans, which sold out in 19 minutes once they hit Seoul’s department stores. This trade will only increase once the Trans-Korean railway project is complete. But it won’t be only transporting goods. Koreans from Seoul will be able to travel through Pyongyang to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, where Koreans will play as a unified team. Personally, I wouldn’t want to coach that team, but I can tell you that I will for sure be on that train!

Others engaging North Korea

In addition to normalizing relations with South Korea in 2000, North Korea also signed a treaty with Russia, and in 2004 established diplomatic relations with the EU. A New York Times article, “North Korea is Reaching Out to the World, and the World is Reaching Back,” documents how North Korea now has embassies in 41 countries and diplomatic ties with 155 nations.

And it’s not just governments that are engaging North Korea. Last fall, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced plans to build a plant in North Korea to manufacture 50 medical products and train North Korean medical staff overseas.

Foreigners investing in North Korea may seem like news to most of the world, but this was the sense I got when I visited North Korea in the summer of 2004. Our peace and humanitarian aid delegation stayed at the Koryo Hotel, Pyongyang’s finest, and in the lobby and dining room, and on the elevator, I was surprised to see so many foreigners from Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea. Clearly, the 2002 economic reforms North Korea implemented are finally attracting the foreign investment they need.

Conclusion

In the summer of 2004, Korean soldiers on both sides of the DMZ began to dismantle loudspeakers used for decades to broadcast government propaganda against the other side. South Koreans flashed “peace and reunification” before they went off for good.

Despite meaningful progress between the two Koreas, the Korean peninsula as understood by the international order is caught between the past and present. Sour relations between Pyongyang and Washington are in a stalemate, and are causing a rift between South-U.S. relations. Koreans, seeing the significant gains in peace and reunification, are no longer willing to accept America’s Cold War mentality. On January 18th, the Journalist Association of Korea, the largest journalist group with 6,000 members, asked U.S. ambassador Alexander Vershbow to “stop making anti-North Korean remarks that do more harm than good,” and to apologize for his remarks, which they viewed as “an intrusion in domestic affairs.” South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun also recently made clear that he did not endorse U.S. sanctions against North Korea. If the Bush administration continues hostile regime change policies, Roh said, “there will be friction and disagreements between Seoul and Washington.”

If the United States genuinely wants peace and human rights for the Korean people, then U.S.-Korea policy should reflect this aspiration. Concretely, the United States should sign a non-aggression pact with North Korea, lift economic sanctions, minimize hostile rhetoric towards the north, and support the Korean people’s efforts towards reunification.

It was just my parents’ generation when the Korean War happened. Although it might be called the “Forgotten War” in the U.S., Koreans are still divided as a legacy of that war. As a Korean American, I feel especially responsible because I live in the United States, and as an American citizen, I want America to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Nobody could have imagined Korea’s phenomenal progress just a few years ago. Just like Germany in the 1980s, nobody dreamed that East and West Germany would reunite, but it happened overnight. Strong popular desire for reunification was key, as were cultural ties that helped build trust between the two societies. Those who doubt Korean reunification should now be reminded that there were doubters back then too. Let’s bring America along with the rest of the world and chart a new Korea policy that finally ends the Korean War and secures permanent peace for Koreans.

This is an abridged version of Christine Ahn's Congressional testimony on January 25, 2005. Ahn is a member of Korean-Americans United for Peace and an Oakland Institute Fellow.