Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Chang Ki-pyo, president of the New Civilization Policy Institute, speaks in an interview with The Korea Times at his office in central Seoul, late last month. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
By Lee Min-hyung
President Moon Jae-in and his administration are advised not to underestimate the "high-handed and militant" attitude of the nation's largest umbrella labor union, a renowned pro-democracy activist said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
Chang Ki-pyo, president of the New Civilization Policy Institute, said it is high time for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the hawkish labor organization with more than 1 million members, to put an end to its violent and authoritative protests being carried out "under the pretext of protecting laborers' rights."
"The KCTU is behaving as if it ignores the nation's rule of law, but the Moon administration is sitting on its hands," Chang said. President Moon was a human rights and labor lawyer back in the 1990s before jumping into politics in the early 2000s.
He argued Moon is paying less attention to what Chang called the "hyper-aggressive" protests from the KCTU, as a possible crackdown of the organization will do no good to the image of his administration.
The latest in a series of aggressive acts from the organization came late last month when two KCTU members locked up a president of a Hyundai Motor subcontractor for hours to demand renewal of labor contracts of two fired employees.
"The government and police fail to investigate and impose strict punishments on KCTU members in most cases," Chang said.
KCTU Chairman Kim Myung-hwan was arrested on June 21 for allegedly masterminding illegal rallies in front of the National Assembly. In response, the KCTU threatened to hold a general rally in an apparent show of complaint to the court decision. "If the decision was seen as unfair, they need to express their complaints by lodging formal appeals to the court," he said, adding KCTU's early threats to hold mass walkouts disregarded the nation's rule of law.
"The average annual salary of a KCTU member tops 70 million won ($59,300), and most of them are from the nation's major conglomerates," he said. "Most of them are playing the victim and making excessive demands, such as for big wage increases."
 |
| Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions hold a strike in front of the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
Deepening internal conflicts
Chang said the most critical issue bringing about conflict between the government and KCTU is Seoul's engagement-centric North Korea policy.
"Fundamentally, the government should always keep in mind that Pyongyang is seeking to take advantage of Seoul to achieve something," Chang said. For this reason, South Korea needs to be aware that national security is one thing and restoring inter-Korean relations is another, according to him.
"For one thing, North Korea is the object for dialogue and reunification, and on the other hand, it is a hostile country," he said. "The South Korean government should carry out a two-track North Korea policy, as a way to reinforce national security, while at the same time, bring reconciliation between the two sides."
But it appears the Moon administration is paying too much attention to inter-Korean reconciliation, according to Chang. Ever since Moon took office in May 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid little attention to improving inter-Korean relations until the end of the same year.
"But Kim started to utilize South Korea the next year by expressing his wishes to send athletes to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea," he said.
Through the Olympics, North Korea ended its years-long reclusive stance toward the international community, and its leader started making unprecedented public appearances outside of the North.
Kim strategically utilized Moon as a mediator for talks between Washington and Pyongyang, Chang said.
"The North's intention was apparently disclosed in the wake of the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between Trump and Kim last February," he said. Despite President Moon's repeated calls to hold another inter-Korean summit, the North has yet to respond to the requests from the South after the Hanoi summit, and this represents that the North considers the South a "simple strategic existence," according to Chang.
Moon and Kim held three summits last year. But with Kim showing his reluctance to hold his fourth direct encounter with Moon since Hanoi, things have gotten clearer that Kim Jong-un "took advantage of President Moon last year" in making the Singapore summit between Washington and Pyongyang happen, Chang said.
"Kim did not hold a summit with former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, during their tenure between the late 2000s and mid-to-early 2010s apparently to maintain inter-Korean tension at a time when he needed to tighten the North's internal discipline after taking office in 2011," the activist said.
