Policies affecting labor
under President Kim Dae-jung

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President-elect Kim’s Saga over Layoff—Poor Safety Net for Jobless Exposed
People’s Korea, 29 October 1997. The KCTU on Jan. 20 insisted that layoffs not be stipulated in the agreement on the Labor-Management-Government Declaration for Pain Sharing. The tripartite commission was formed by Kim to persuade the labor circles into what he claims inevitability of legal layoffs.
Kim Dae Jung Set To Emulate Past Dictators?
KCTU Action Alert, 22 July 1998. The arrest of unionists and democratic movement activists comes at a time the Kim Dae Jung government declared that it would deal sternly with all illegal strike actions by workers. The presidential statement gave the green light to the hard-liners within his government to emerge at the forefront of the national affairs.
Despatches
By Andrew Wood, BBC (Seoul), Saturday 14 February 1998. South Korea’s Parliament has passed a controversial package of law to give businesses more freedom to make redundancies. The reforms were required by the International Monetary Fund before it would make nearly $60 billion of emergency loans to help the country out of its economic problems.
Backlash Over US Role in Strike-Breaking
By Tim Shorrock, IPS, 20 April 1999. WASHINGTON, Apr 20 (IPS)—A strike by thousands of transport and industrial workers in South Korea this week is mainly in protest at mass layoffs that form part of reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the unions also are angry at the crackdown on the Korean labour movement. Role of U.S. unions in the restructuring that caused the discontent.
Truth about Social Dialogue in Korea under President Kim Dae Jung
KCTU statement, 16 October 2001. One of the reasons the government proceeded to press new charges against the KCTU president Dan Byung-ho was because he refused to bring the KCTU back to the fold of the Tripartite Commission. KCTU has rejected the Tripartite Commission; it leaves labor to pick out what ever might be left after restructuring has ploughed through employment security and dignity.