It has survived a century of colonisation, war and division.... come through a bloody struggle against military dictatorship ... and arrived as a first-class economic power.That is South Korea’s proud achievement.
But it remains economic progress without contentment.Even today’s prosperity is haunted by state violence and passionate dissent.This summer, once again, Korean democracy is on trial.
It’s Sunday morning .... and at Seoul’s Catholic Cathedral, Mass is in progress.Outside, surrounding the church ... there is an unusual police presence.
The police are waiting for an opportunity to arrest sixteen trade union officials who’ve taken refuge in the cathedral compound.
THE DEMOCRATIC LABOUR UNION IS OUR LOVE. A LOVE FORGED OUT OF STRUGGLE.(SUBTITLES)
In June, these subway workers went on strike for higher wages. For the past two months, the subway dispute has been run from this cathedral sanctuary.
WHAT WE WANT IS TO BARGAIN ON EQUAL TERMS WITH THE COMPANY, BUT THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE.(Sub-title)
Kim Yun-hwan:ALWAYS THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENES IN THE BARGAINING PROCESS, AND CONFLICT BEGINS.
Straight after this interview we too, find ourselves caught in the police net.
THEY’RE COPS. THEY’RE COPS. THEY WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING IN THE CATHEDRAL.I HEARD YOU CAME TO SEE THE DEMONSTRATORS. SOMEONE TOLD ME.
IS THERE ANY PROBLEM?
ALL RIGHT, YOU CAN GO.
Next day, we find a similar confrontation going on at this Buddhist temple in Seoul.Three hundred police on 24-hour patrol... waiting to pounce on another group of unionists hiding inside.
WE’RE NOW GOING TO HAVE A LABOUR MEMORIAL SERVICE. THEY DIED IN THEIR STRUGGLE TO LIVE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS. LET’S PRAY.
These railroad workers are demanding that the government respect its own labour law and grant them an eight hour day. But as public sector employees the law takes away their right to strike ... and hundreds of union members have been punished.
I HAD THE HONOUR OF BEING THE FIRST ONE FIRED AT OUR WORKSHOP. I’LL STRUGGLE UNTIL EVERY LAST MEMBER IS FREED FROM JAIL AND REINSTATED.
For now, the police are biding their time.They won’t risk a repeat of the events of last March... which shattered the tranquillity of the Chogye Temple.
CONTRARY TO OUR EXPECTATIONS, THE GOVERNMENT’S POLICY HAS BEEN ALMOST THE SAME. THE OPPRESSION UNDER KIM YOUNG-SAM IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP WE FOUGHT SO HARD AGAINST.
Moon Song-hyun is general secretary of the Korea Trade Union Congress ... the driving force behind the labour unrest.
The K.T.U.C. is not recognised by the government... its president has been driven into hiding... the building is watched, and the phones certainly tapped.
From here disputes all around the country are coordinated... and videos prepared to show workers how to run campaigns.
THEY ARE ON THE BLACKLIST AND THE POLICE ARE SEARCHING FOR THOSE TWO.
For Moon Song-hyun, the struggle for better wages and conditions is just part of a larger political and economic contest.In that contest, the ultimate prize - cherished by all Koreans - is the reunification of their homeland.He sees the current crackdown on labour in the same terms.
Moon Song-hyun: I THINK THE SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT TRIES TO ABSORB NORTH KOREA INTO THE CAPITALIST MARKET. BUT TO STRENGTHEN ITS BARGAINING POSITION, THE GOVERNMENT WILL FIRST SUPPRESS OPPOSITION GROUPS IN SOUTH KOREA.
Confrontation with the communist North has been the great spur to South Korea’s economic development.
Along highways built wide enough to serve as airfields, we travel south-east to the industrial city of Ulsan.From the paddyfields have sprouted towering apartment blocks... sleepy villages transformed into teeming cities.
To further strengthen its economic clout, South Korea has concentrated power in the hands of a few business conglomerates.These often family-owned companies - such as the Hyundai Corporation - reach into every corner of industry.
Most of the 28-thousand employees at this, the world’s biggest shipyard, belong to the union.
Ulsan is where the country’s independent trade unions were born in 1987.
Despite the appearance of ‘business as usual’ Hyundai is once again embroiled in a bitter dispute.
During our visit, the occupation continues.... and it’s weeks since the two sides have met.Yet, judging from the crowds at the nearby Hyundai Department Store, nobody’s running out of money.
Average Korean wages have doubled in the past five years... at Hyundai, they’ve trebled.The real issue behind this strike is not the extra fifty dollars a week the workers are after. It’s about changing the balance of power in the workplace.
INSIDE THE FACTORY THERE WAS A WHITEBOARD WHICH LISTED THE NAMES OF THE WORKERS.
Kwon Yong-mok got the sack from Hyundai after he helped set-up the union.He describes how the company would rate each worker’s performance ... using blue markers for good and red markers for bad.
Kwon: CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE IF YOUR FRIEND ALWAYS GOT A BLUE MARKER AND YOU ALWAYS GOT A RED ONE. WE COULDN’T EVEN CUT OUR HAIR THE WAY WE WANTED. IT WAS A FEUDAL WAY OF CONTROLLING WORKERS.
Kwon is just out of jail... where he served ten months for making a speech about the Hyundai strike. Under Korean law, any ‘third party’, not employed by the company, is forbidden to get involved in a dispute.Labour experts say the deadlock at Hyundai signals a warning for the whole South Korean economy.
At the government’s own industrial relations think-tank, people like Park Young-bum are urging reform.He believes the law should permit more than one union at each workplace ... and recognise the Korea Trade Union Congress.In fact, an inquiry set up by President Kim has reached the same conclusions ... but hard-liners in the government won’t accept them.
Park Young-bum: IN THE PAST WE TOOK FULL ADVANTAGE OF
CHEAP AND ABUNDANT AND VERY COOPERATIVE LABOUR FORCE. NOW THIS LABOUR HAS BECOME A PROBLEM FOR OUR SUSTAINED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. AND UNLESS WE FIND SOME SOLUTION THE KOREAN ECONOMY WILL BE IN BIG TROUBLE.
At the Labour Ministry, it seems serious reform is years away.
Here union activists are viewed as a radical fringe, with dangerous sympathies.
DO YOU REGARD THEM AS PRO-NORTH KOREA?
Chang Jai-gu: I’M NOT SURE AND WE ARE NOT SURE. BUT WE
CAN FEEL AND WE CAN JUDGE THE TENDENCY BECAUSE THEY TRY TO CAUSE, TO INDUCE SOME KIND OF VIOLENCE.
But violence in South Korea knows no political boundaries. We’ve come to this hospital in the southern city of Kwangju after hearing of the bashing of a union organiser.The gangsters who did this wanted the same information the police had asked him for a day earlier.
Kim Sang-jin: THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD FIND OUT WHERE THE LEADERS OF THE KUMHO TIRE UNION WANTED BY THE POLICE ARE HIDING.
SO YOU BELIEVE THE POLICE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS ATTACK?
Kim Sang-jin: YES, THEY HAVE THE STRONGEST MOTIVE.
The Kumho Tire dispute has produced other allegations of beatings... even police torture.When I first walked along here it was May 1980 ... and this provincial government building was in the hands of a civilian militia.One of those rebels was a young union leader, Jung Huang-ja.
WHEN WE OCCUPIED THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE THERE WERE AROUND FIFTY DEAD BODIES INSIDE. WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH COFFINS FOR THEM ALL.
The dead are buried here in a special corner of the Kwangju cemetery.
SHE WAS PREGNANT AT THE TIME AND HER BELLY WAS BIG WITH CHILD. BUT A SOLDIER STABBED HER WITH A BAYONET AND BOTH SHE AND BABY WERE KILLED.
WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?
IT WAS KILLED.
These days Mrs Jung has her own family... although she still works as a labour counsellor.
Jung Huang-ja: I THINK THE KWANGJU UPRISING INFLUENCED THE BIRTH OF THIS CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT. BUT WHILE THERE HAVE BEEN IMPROVEMENTS IN OTHER AREAS, LABOUR PROBLEMS REMAIN. I THING THE LABOUR MOVEMENT HAS A TOUGH ROAD AHEAD.
History is forever murdering the peace in South Korea. Within a land divided, a nation divided against itself.
Back in Seoul, it’s the anniversary of the liberation from Japanese rule. Dissident groups have organised a rally for reunification... and want to send delegates to similar celebrations in the North.
WE’RE ON THE WAY FROM SEOUL TO PYONGYANG. EVEN THOUGH IT SEEMS A DREAM WE WANT TO GO.
But the government claims the rally is a threat to national security and has vowed to prevent it. For the next three days, Seoul’s summer of protest hits boiling point.
With the rally site completely surrounded... the organisers decide a last-minute change of venue.The strategy works.
Groups from all over the country converge on Seoul National University.As dusk falls, student warriors form a protective cordon around the rally site.... to hold off the police.A stark contrast to the festive atmosphere inside the campus.
Still they pour in... a familiar face among the crowd, from the K.T.U.C., leading a troop of young workers.
ONE KOREA YES, TWO KOREA NO. ONE KOREA YES, TWO KOREA NO.
THEY’RE GOING TO SING THE REUNIFICATION SONG.
The preliminaries have been going two hours, when the sound of trouble intervenes....The police attack has begun.As panic sweeps the crowd, the rally organiser rushes for the microphone.
FOR THE PEACE AND INDEPENDENT PROSPERITY OF THE NATION I OPEN THE PAN-NATIONAL RALLY.
It’s the signal for battle... iron bars and rocks versus tear gas and batons. It will last all night. Both sides will claim victory from this - the government for exerting its authority, the dissidents for achieving their rally. But there are no winners. Bloodied heads are the only trophies... for a new crop of discontent.
When day dawns, just the hangover remains... toasted with a last shower of noxious chemicals from the sky. Solidarity forever... like the ghosts of Kwangju and, all the little Kwangjus, nothing gained but another memory to inspire tomorrow’s confrontations. Another wedge driven into the ranks of a fractured land.
But it remains economic progress without contentment.Even today’s prosperity is haunted by state violence and passionate dissent.This summer, once again, Korean democracy is on trial.
It’s Sunday morning .... and at Seoul’s Catholic Cathedral, Mass is in progress.Outside, surrounding the church ... there is an unusual police presence.
The police are waiting for an opportunity to arrest sixteen trade union officials who’ve taken refuge in the cathedral compound.
THE DEMOCRATIC LABOUR UNION IS OUR LOVE. A LOVE FORGED OUT OF STRUGGLE.(SUBTITLES)
In June, these subway workers went on strike for higher wages. For the past two months, the subway dispute has been run from this cathedral sanctuary.
WHAT WE WANT IS TO BARGAIN ON EQUAL TERMS WITH THE COMPANY, BUT THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE.(Sub-title)
Kim Yun-hwan:ALWAYS THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENES IN THE BARGAINING PROCESS, AND CONFLICT BEGINS.
Straight after this interview we too, find ourselves caught in the police net.
THEY’RE COPS. THEY’RE COPS. THEY WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING IN THE CATHEDRAL.I HEARD YOU CAME TO SEE THE DEMONSTRATORS. SOMEONE TOLD ME.
IS THERE ANY PROBLEM?
ALL RIGHT, YOU CAN GO.
Next day, we find a similar confrontation going on at this Buddhist temple in Seoul.Three hundred police on 24-hour patrol... waiting to pounce on another group of unionists hiding inside.
WE’RE NOW GOING TO HAVE A LABOUR MEMORIAL SERVICE. THEY DIED IN THEIR STRUGGLE TO LIVE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS. LET’S PRAY.
These railroad workers are demanding that the government respect its own labour law and grant them an eight hour day. But as public sector employees the law takes away their right to strike ... and hundreds of union members have been punished.
I HAD THE HONOUR OF BEING THE FIRST ONE FIRED AT OUR WORKSHOP. I’LL STRUGGLE UNTIL EVERY LAST MEMBER IS FREED FROM JAIL AND REINSTATED.
For now, the police are biding their time.They won’t risk a repeat of the events of last March... which shattered the tranquillity of the Chogye Temple.
CONTRARY TO OUR EXPECTATIONS, THE GOVERNMENT’S POLICY HAS BEEN ALMOST THE SAME. THE OPPRESSION UNDER KIM YOUNG-SAM IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP WE FOUGHT SO HARD AGAINST.
Moon Song-hyun is general secretary of the Korea Trade Union Congress ... the driving force behind the labour unrest.
The K.T.U.C. is not recognised by the government... its president has been driven into hiding... the building is watched, and the phones certainly tapped.
From here disputes all around the country are coordinated... and videos prepared to show workers how to run campaigns.
THEY ARE ON THE BLACKLIST AND THE POLICE ARE SEARCHING FOR THOSE TWO.
For Moon Song-hyun, the struggle for better wages and conditions is just part of a larger political and economic contest.In that contest, the ultimate prize - cherished by all Koreans - is the reunification of their homeland.He sees the current crackdown on labour in the same terms.
Moon Song-hyun: I THINK THE SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT TRIES TO ABSORB NORTH KOREA INTO THE CAPITALIST MARKET. BUT TO STRENGTHEN ITS BARGAINING POSITION, THE GOVERNMENT WILL FIRST SUPPRESS OPPOSITION GROUPS IN SOUTH KOREA.
Confrontation with the communist North has been the great spur to South Korea’s economic development.
Along highways built wide enough to serve as airfields, we travel south-east to the industrial city of Ulsan.From the paddyfields have sprouted towering apartment blocks... sleepy villages transformed into teeming cities.
To further strengthen its economic clout, South Korea has concentrated power in the hands of a few business conglomerates.These often family-owned companies - such as the Hyundai Corporation - reach into every corner of industry.
Most of the 28-thousand employees at this, the world’s biggest shipyard, belong to the union.
Ulsan is where the country’s independent trade unions were born in 1987.
Despite the appearance of ‘business as usual’ Hyundai is once again embroiled in a bitter dispute.
During our visit, the occupation continues.... and it’s weeks since the two sides have met.Yet, judging from the crowds at the nearby Hyundai Department Store, nobody’s running out of money.
Average Korean wages have doubled in the past five years... at Hyundai, they’ve trebled.The real issue behind this strike is not the extra fifty dollars a week the workers are after. It’s about changing the balance of power in the workplace.
INSIDE THE FACTORY THERE WAS A WHITEBOARD WHICH LISTED THE NAMES OF THE WORKERS.
Kwon Yong-mok got the sack from Hyundai after he helped set-up the union.He describes how the company would rate each worker’s performance ... using blue markers for good and red markers for bad.
Kwon: CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE IF YOUR FRIEND ALWAYS GOT A BLUE MARKER AND YOU ALWAYS GOT A RED ONE. WE COULDN’T EVEN CUT OUR HAIR THE WAY WE WANTED. IT WAS A FEUDAL WAY OF CONTROLLING WORKERS.
Kwon is just out of jail... where he served ten months for making a speech about the Hyundai strike. Under Korean law, any ‘third party’, not employed by the company, is forbidden to get involved in a dispute.Labour experts say the deadlock at Hyundai signals a warning for the whole South Korean economy.
At the government’s own industrial relations think-tank, people like Park Young-bum are urging reform.He believes the law should permit more than one union at each workplace ... and recognise the Korea Trade Union Congress.In fact, an inquiry set up by President Kim has reached the same conclusions ... but hard-liners in the government won’t accept them.
Park Young-bum: IN THE PAST WE TOOK FULL ADVANTAGE OF
CHEAP AND ABUNDANT AND VERY COOPERATIVE LABOUR FORCE. NOW THIS LABOUR HAS BECOME A PROBLEM FOR OUR SUSTAINED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. AND UNLESS WE FIND SOME SOLUTION THE KOREAN ECONOMY WILL BE IN BIG TROUBLE.
At the Labour Ministry, it seems serious reform is years away.
Here union activists are viewed as a radical fringe, with dangerous sympathies.
DO YOU REGARD THEM AS PRO-NORTH KOREA?
Chang Jai-gu: I’M NOT SURE AND WE ARE NOT SURE. BUT WE
CAN FEEL AND WE CAN JUDGE THE TENDENCY BECAUSE THEY TRY TO CAUSE, TO INDUCE SOME KIND OF VIOLENCE.
But violence in South Korea knows no political boundaries. We’ve come to this hospital in the southern city of Kwangju after hearing of the bashing of a union organiser.The gangsters who did this wanted the same information the police had asked him for a day earlier.
Kim Sang-jin: THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD FIND OUT WHERE THE LEADERS OF THE KUMHO TIRE UNION WANTED BY THE POLICE ARE HIDING.
SO YOU BELIEVE THE POLICE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS ATTACK?
Kim Sang-jin: YES, THEY HAVE THE STRONGEST MOTIVE.
The Kumho Tire dispute has produced other allegations of beatings... even police torture.When I first walked along here it was May 1980 ... and this provincial government building was in the hands of a civilian militia.One of those rebels was a young union leader, Jung Huang-ja.
WHEN WE OCCUPIED THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE THERE WERE AROUND FIFTY DEAD BODIES INSIDE. WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH COFFINS FOR THEM ALL.
The dead are buried here in a special corner of the Kwangju cemetery.
SHE WAS PREGNANT AT THE TIME AND HER BELLY WAS BIG WITH CHILD. BUT A SOLDIER STABBED HER WITH A BAYONET AND BOTH SHE AND BABY WERE KILLED.
WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?
IT WAS KILLED.
These days Mrs Jung has her own family... although she still works as a labour counsellor.
Jung Huang-ja: I THINK THE KWANGJU UPRISING INFLUENCED THE BIRTH OF THIS CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT. BUT WHILE THERE HAVE BEEN IMPROVEMENTS IN OTHER AREAS, LABOUR PROBLEMS REMAIN. I THING THE LABOUR MOVEMENT HAS A TOUGH ROAD AHEAD.
History is forever murdering the peace in South Korea. Within a land divided, a nation divided against itself.
Back in Seoul, it’s the anniversary of the liberation from Japanese rule. Dissident groups have organised a rally for reunification... and want to send delegates to similar celebrations in the North.
WE’RE ON THE WAY FROM SEOUL TO PYONGYANG. EVEN THOUGH IT SEEMS A DREAM WE WANT TO GO.
But the government claims the rally is a threat to national security and has vowed to prevent it. For the next three days, Seoul’s summer of protest hits boiling point.
With the rally site completely surrounded... the organisers decide a last-minute change of venue.The strategy works.
Groups from all over the country converge on Seoul National University.As dusk falls, student warriors form a protective cordon around the rally site.... to hold off the police.A stark contrast to the festive atmosphere inside the campus.
Still they pour in... a familiar face among the crowd, from the K.T.U.C., leading a troop of young workers.
ONE KOREA YES, TWO KOREA NO. ONE KOREA YES, TWO KOREA NO.
THEY’RE GOING TO SING THE REUNIFICATION SONG.
The preliminaries have been going two hours, when the sound of trouble intervenes....The police attack has begun.As panic sweeps the crowd, the rally organiser rushes for the microphone.
FOR THE PEACE AND INDEPENDENT PROSPERITY OF THE NATION I OPEN THE PAN-NATIONAL RALLY.
It’s the signal for battle... iron bars and rocks versus tear gas and batons. It will last all night. Both sides will claim victory from this - the government for exerting its authority, the dissidents for achieving their rally. But there are no winners. Bloodied heads are the only trophies... for a new crop of discontent.
When day dawns, just the hangover remains... toasted with a last shower of noxious chemicals from the sky. Solidarity forever... like the ghosts of Kwangju and, all the little Kwangjus, nothing gained but another memory to inspire tomorrow’s confrontations. Another wedge driven into the ranks of a fractured land.