Demand SKorea gov’t free union president!

Hankyoreh/Shin So-young

A growing international campaign is demanding the release of Han Sang-gyun, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who was arrested Dec. 10 for participating in protests against government attacks on South Korean workers’ rights. He was taken prisoner, (above), at the Jogye Buddhist Temple, where he had taken refuge.

After a Nov. 14 demonstration of 100,000 against a bill aimed at weakening South Korea’s labor laws, the government charged Han was responsible for attacks on police, obstruction of public affairs and blocking traffic.

“The police have added one more charge, sedition, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison,” Mikyung Rhu, international director of the KCTU, said by phone from Seoul Dec. 21. “The last time the anti-sedition law was used was 29 years ago, under the military dictatorship.”

At least 24 other KCTU members have also been arrested, she said. “Some of them are charged with harboring a criminal because they surrounded Han during a Nov. 14 press conference and prevented his arrest.”

“I am fighting to stop the government’s regressive labor policies, which will make it easy to fire workers,” Han said just hours before his arrest. “This the real crime.”

The International Trade Union Confederation, International Transport Workers’ Federation, the AFL-CIO in the U.S. and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — the other union federation in South Korea — are among those demanding the charges be dropped.

Send messages demanding the government free Han and other jailed unionists to Korean President Park Guen-hye, 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-820, Republic of Korea; or email: president@president.go.kr. Send copies to kctucampaign@gmail.com.

— SETH GALINSKY