Text Fwd: Vertical launching system for attack subs developed

A 1,800-ton Type-214 submarine of the South Korean Navy sails in waters off Busan. The diesel-electric sub was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries with technical cooperation from HDW of Germany. After 2018 South Korea plans to build 3,000-ton heavy attack submarines equipped with vertical launching systems that allow a variety of weapons, including long-range cruise missiles, to be deployed. / Courtesy of ROK Navy

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/04/205_86282.html
Vertical launching system for attack subs developed
05-02-2011 17:38
By Jung Sung-ki

Korea has developed a vertical launching system (VLS) to be installed on 3,000-ton heavy attack submarines to be deployed after 2018, according to a shipbuilding industry source, Monday.

Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering are subcontractors for the heavy attack submarines.

It is the first time that the development of a submarine VLS in Korea has been confirmed. The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has already developed one used aboard the 7,600-ton KDX-III Aegis destroyer.

A VLS is a modern type of missile-firing system used aboard submarines and surface vessels of several navies around the world. When installed on an attack submarine, a VLS allows a greater number and variety of weapons to be deployed in comparison to using only torpedo tubes.

Following the development of the VLS for subs, top shipbuilders in Korea and the ADD are also on track to develop an indigenous horizontal tube to launch torpedoes, cruise missiles and mines, the source said.

“The development of a vertical launching system has already been completed, while the development of a horizontal launching system is still under way,” the source told The Korea Times, asking not to be identified. “Developing the horizontal launching tube requires more sophisticated technology than the VLS development.”

The VLS would be used in launching long-range cruise missiles at key targets in North Korea.

The ADD has developed the 500-kilometer-range, ship-launched Cheonryong, which is a modified variant of the surface-to-surface Hyunmoo III-A ballistic missile. The missile range could be extended up to 1,000 kilometers, according to military sources.

The Cheonryong missiles are believed to have already been modified to be installed on Type-214 subs.

South Korea has successfully developed the Hyunmoo III-C surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a maximum range of 1,500 kilometers, following the deployment of the 1,000-kilometer-range Hyunmoo III-B.

With the VLS development, Korea would have an advantage in selling its submarines overseas in the future, the source added.

Currently, the South operates nine 1,200-ton, Type-209 submarines and three 1,800-ton, Type-214 submarines. They are all diesel- and electric-powered and were all built with technical cooperation from HDW of Germany.

As Germany restricts the transfer of key submarine technology, such as launching tubes, Korea would have difficulty exporting any of those locally-built submarines.

The Navy plans to deploy at least three more Type-214 submarines in the years to come.

Beginning in 2018, Seoul plans to build 3,000-ton KSS-III submarines fitted with domestically-built submarine combat systems aimed at automating target detection, tracking, threat assessment and weapons control.

The heavy attack sub will be armed with indigenous ship-to-ground cruise missiles and be capable of underwater operations for up to 50 days with an upgraded Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system.

[단독] 중형 잠수함 수직발사대 개발 완료

정성기 기자

2018년 이후 건조되는 차기 중형 잠수함에 탑재될 국산 수직 발사대가 개발 완료 된 것으로 확인됐다.

KSS-III(장보고 3)라 불리는 3,000톤급 공격형 잠수함은 현재 현대중공업과 대우조선해양이 공동으로 설계하고 있다.

조선업계 관계자에 따르면 이미 국방과학연구소 주도로 잠수함 수직발사대는 개발이 완료됐고 수평발사대 역시 개발 중인 것으로 알려졌다.

이 관계자는 “수직 발사대는 이미 개발됐고 수평발사대는 좀 더 고난도의 기술이 요구되기 때문에 아직 완성하지는 못한 상태”라고 언급했다.

국방과학연구소는 이미 7,600톤 세종대왕함 급 이지스 구축함에 탑재되는 수상함 수직발사대는 개발을 마치고 전력화 한 상태다.

수직발사대는 잠수함과 수상함에 장착돼 어뢰를 포함한 다양한 무기체계를 발사하는 체계이다. 공격 잠수함에 탑재될 경우 장거리 순항 미사일 발사가 가능하다.

우리나라는 이미 현무 탄도 미사일을 개량한 사거리 500키로의 ‘천룡함대지 순항 미사일을 개발한 상태다. 군 소식통에 의하면 성능 개량이 될 경우 국산 중형잠수함에 사거리 1,000키로의 순항 미사일도 장착 가능하다.

국산 수직발사대 개발은 향후 잠수함 수출에도 희소식이 될 전망이다.

현재 한국 해구는 독일 HDW사로부터 기술이전 받아 건조한 1,200톤급 209잠수함과 1,800톤급 214잠수함을 운용 중이다.

하지만 수직발사대를 포함 핵심 무장체계는 기술이전을 받지 못해 수출시 걸림돌이 될 수도 있다는 우려가 컸다.

2018년 건조 시작될 3,000톤급 장수함은 국내 개발된 잠수함 전투체계가 탑재되고 천룡을 비롯한 국산 미사일이 탑재 예정이다. 최신형 AIP시스템을 탑재하고 최장 50일까지 수중 작전이 가능하다.

Text Fwd: Korean Hyundai Irregular Workers Factory Occupation

* Text sent from Steve Zeltzer on Jan. 15, 2011

Asia Resource Monitoring Center
Hyundai Irregular Workers Factory Occupation
10 December 2010
Wol-san Liem
Research Institute for Alternative Workers Movements

Yesterday (December 9), members of the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers Chapter of the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU) left factory 1 of the Hyundai Plant in Ulsan. Their departure marked the end of a 25-day long occupation, which they had endured without adequate food, water or bedding.

Today, representatives from the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers Chapter, the Hyundai Motors Local Branch (regular workers), and the KMWU sat down with representatives from Hyundai Motors and its in-house subcontractors. In accordance with an agreement reached between the President of the Irregular Workers Chapter, Lee Sang-su, President of the Local Branch, Lee Gyeong-hun and President of the KMWU, they presented the following 4 demands: 1) Cancellation of damage suits and charges against workers who participated in the occupation, and payment of medical bills; 2) guarantee of reinstatement for those who participated in the occupation, 3) protection for strike leaders, and 4) a plan for negotiations concerning the regularization of illegal dispatch workers.

While negotiations have begun, it will be an uphill battle to get demands met, and take even more determination before the ultimate goal of regularization for illegal dispatch workers is achieved. Past experience including a similar struggle in 2005, has shown that without the pressure of a factory occupation it is not likely that Hyundai Motors will yield much ground. For this reason many of the striking workers had not wanted to leave factory 1 until after their demands were met in full, and originally pledge to continue the occupation until Hyundai agreed to employ them directly as regular workers.

In reality, however, the striking irregular workers have faced increasingly difficult conditions in the last several days. In addition to repression at the hands of Hyundai Motors, they have been put under growing pressure by the leadership of the Hyundai Local Branch to bring their struggle to a speedy conclusion. While the KMWU Delegates Assembly voted in favor of a general strike in support of the irregular workers
struggle on December 22, it had not set a firm date. Meanwhile, President Lee Gyeong-hun of the Hyundai Motors Local Branch determined to put the general strike to a second vote at a Branch general assembly, despite the fact that the KMWU Constitution gives the delegates assembly the right to call for a general strike. When the Hyundai Motors Local Branch leadership could have been educating its members on the importance of regular-irregular workers solidarity and preparing for the general strike, it was instead suggesting to its members that it was time for struggle to be over.

With knowledge of the negative result of the Branch general assembly, and the reality that the second vote signified the cancellation of general strike plans and the loss of support from the Branch, the irregular workers set to heated debate within the factory about whether to go one with their occupation or agree to leave and begin negotiations with a set of less than satisfactory demands. In the end, they chose to accept the demands listed above as a basis for negotiation and entrusted the decision to continue or end the occupation to the Chapter leadership. After meeting with the KMWU and Branch presidents, Lee Sang-su declared an end to the occupation.

Sadly, the conclusion of the occupation demonstrates clearly the limits of the solidarity between regular and irregular workers developed in the beginning of the strike and, even more so, the lack of will on the part of the Hyundai Motors Branch’s leadership to support a strike that it should have recognized as the struggle of all Hyundai workers.

Nonetheless, there have been important victories through this struggle. The consciousness and daring of a few irregular workers quickly spread throughout the Irregular Workers Chapter and from Ulsan to Asan to Jeonju. The hundreds who participated in the strike have been transformed through the experience, coming to recognizing their common cause and developing the power and courage to demand their right to be treated equally. They constructed and made use of democratic decision-making structures even in the midst of the cruel conditions of their factory occupation, and formed a still growing sense of class-consciousness. Despite the fact that they will return to work on December 13, Hyundai irregular workers have vowed to continue organizing among their colleagues and preparing for the next phase of the struggle for regularization. As one reporter commented, the end of the factory occupation at the Ulsan Plan represents, “a victory for the Hyundai irregular workers th! emselves, but a loss for the labor movement as a whole.”

It is the power of class-consciousness and unity that makes struggle possible. The struggle, therefore, will surely go on.

Text Fwd: UAW: Korean workers’ fight is our fight 미국 노동자들, 한국 노동자들을 위한 연대 투쟁

* Image source: same as the link

* Texts from Steve Zeltzer on Dec. 18, 2010

People's World
UAW: Korean workers’ fight is our fight
by: JOHN RUMMEL
December 9 2010

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The movement for global justice got a big lift this week, when Hyundai Motor Co. found out its unjust treatment of autoworkers in South Korea will not go unnoticed in the U.S. That "lift" came on a bitterly cold Michigan day, when the United Auto Workers and a host of supporters demonstrated outside the Hyundai America Technical Center here, in support of striking autoworkers at the Hyundai Motor Company in Ulsan, South Korea.

Known around the world as "precarious" workers but in the U.S. as temporary workers, the Korean autoworkers have been waging a sit-down strike since Nov. 15. The strike began after company thugs attacked protesting workers and prevented them from going to their workplace. Hyundai insisted the workers withdraw their membership in the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU) if they wanted an opportunity to continue working.

The Dec. 6 UAW demonstration took place on short notice, on a windswept country road where the Hyundai Tech Center is located. Still, a hundred strong showed up to express their solidarity.

UAW President Bob King, who along with three other UAW leaders will be leaving this Friday to travel to South Korea to meet with the Metal Workers Union, said, "What we confront today is a global problem for workers. Bosses all over the world, even tremendously profitable corporations like Hyundai, are trying to reduce the number of permanent workers, and expand the number of temporary workers."

King noted that the UAW along with other manufacturing unions built the middle class in the United States. "When autoworkers, steelworkers, machinists and teamsters got good wages, public employees were able to demand and win good wages, service sector employees were able to demand and win good wages," King said.

"We have an unbelievable disparity between the very wealthiest in society and the working and poor class in society," the UAW president said. "The only way we are going to win justice for American workers, for Korean workers, for Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Bangladesh workers, and workers everywhere, is through global solidarity."

READ MORE

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Check also
...............................................................
In These Times
UAW President: Critics of Korea Treaty Don’t Represent Worker
By Mike Elk
Dec. 7, 2010
...............................................................
Oregon Fair Trade Campaign’s member organizations

	Korea KCTU Portland Flyer Final.pdf 224K View Download

...............................................................

Poster Fwd: Pan-Korean People's Rally on Dec. 18

*Image source: Korean Alliance of Progressive Movements; Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification, South Korean branch; and many other Korean organization sites

Pan Korean People’s Rally:
Lee Myung-Bak OUT!

No War! Convert the Hyundae irregular jobs to regular jobs!
No ROK-US FTA! No Four River Project!
Seoul Square/ 3pm, Dec. 18, 2010

Click the image for larger view
이미지를 클릭하시면 확대됩니다.

[Site Fwd: Hankyoreh] Watershed for Hyundai sit-in 현대 농성 분수령

Determination

Sleeping curled up

Waiting in front of bathroom

Hankyoreh
Watershed for Hyundai sit-in
Dec. 8, 2010
(Photo by Rhee Jong-chan, Story by Lim Ji-sun)

Around 400 in-house contractors of Hyundai Motor Co. met another dawn with stiff bodies on Tuesday, the 23rd day of sit-in strike demanding regular workers’ status. The Hyundai No. 1 Factory in Ulsan they occupied has turned into ‘cold wintery island’ as company has cut off access to the strikers, in addition to cutting off access to electricity and water.

The biggest pains reported by strikers are not the cold or isolation, but starvation. Three contractors fell down from malnutrition and some 100 contractors gave up until Dec. 7 because they entered the sit-in without any preparation.

On Wednesday, regular workers of the Hyundai labor union will vote on the solidarity strike that may sway the future of this sit-in. 　

The Hankyoreh photographed the continued sit-in strike by in-house contractors.

Text Fwd: UAW takes a stand against unfair treatment of Hyundai workers in South Korea 미 자동차 노조 연합 노동자들, 남한의 부당한 현대 노동자 처분에 반대해 연대

* Image source: same as the link

'Korean autoworkers rally for their rights.'

* Image source: same as the link

Police use pepper spray against Korean autoworkers.

_______________________________________________________________

* Text thankfully forwarded by Steve Zeltzer and then Lotus Fong during Dec. 5 to 6, 2010


United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)
전미 자동차, 우주 항공 그리고 농업 이행 노동자들 연합(UAW)
UAW takes a stand against unfair treatment of Hyundai workers in South Korea
12/03/10

Frustrated by their temporary status, auto workers at a Hyundai Motor Co.mpany plant in Ulsan, South Korea, declared a strike on Nov. 15, and one desperate worker set himself on fire in protest of the company’s refusal to offer secure jobs. About 500 workers have since led an occupation of various plants in the Hyundai compound.

Plagued by unfair dismissals and miserably low wages, precarious workers, known in the United States as temporary or contract workers, are shutting down assembly lines to voice their discontent. The occupation of auto plants has resulted in company losses totaling $173 million as of Dec. 1. Mainly affected is production of the recently unveiled Hyundai Accent. Countless pre-orders on this new sub-compact vehicle have now been left unfilled.

The cost of Hyundai’s refusal to negotiate with striking workers increases exponentially every day. The estimated$225 million that a concession in this particular case would cost is not much more than the toll the work stoppage has taken so far, but the automaker is doubtlessly interested in longer term outcomes.

Hyundai is the fastest-growing company in the auto industry, and that means it’s quickly becoming a force to reckon with for companies like Toyota which is notorious for keeping temporary workers on low wages for years and dismissing them with ease.

To anyone interested in workplace fairness, the resolution of the Ulsan Hyundai workers’ strike is critical. It could either speed up progress toward ensuring global living wages, or provide a green light on the race to the bottom the auto industry began years ago – — with Toyota and Hyundai getting a head start.

READ MORE

_______________________________________________________________

* See also FireDog Lake
UAW To Support NAFTA-Style Korea Free Trade, Sells Out Taxpayers Who Bailed Them Out
By: Jane Hamsher Friday December 3, 2010 8:25 pm

(* Text thankfully forwarded by Lee Jesse C. on Dec. 3 and Steve Zeltzer and then Lotus Fong during Dec. 5 to 6, 2010)

_______________________________________________________________

* Related blog

Sunday, December 5, 2010
Text Fwd: 12/6 Ann Arbor UAW demonstration organized by in support of striking precarious workers at Hyundai plant in Korea
미국 미시간 노동자들, 현대 파업 노동자들 지지

Monday, December 6, 2010
Text Fwd: KORUS FTA concessions part of MB’s U.S.-centered strategy, analysts say
분석가들은 한미 FTA가 이명박 정부의 미중심 전략에 부분적으로 양보했다고 말함

Text Fwd: 12/6 Ann Arbor UAW demonstration organized by in support of striking precarious workers at Hyundai plant in Korea 미국 미시간 노동자들, 현대 파업 노동자들 지지

* Image & caption source: Wall Street Journal

'Bloomberg News
'A worker inspects vehicles intended for export at the Port of Pyeongtaek in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, in March.'

_____________________________________________________

* Text thankfully forwarded from Steve Zeltzer and then, Lotus Fong on Dec. 4, 2010

United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)
12/6 Ann Arbor UAW demonstration organized by in support of striking precarious workers at Hyundai plant in Korea
Dec. 3, 2010

Precarious workers, known in the United States as temporary or contract workers, at the Hyundai Motor Company in Ulsan, South Korea, have been engaged in a sit-in strike since Nov. 15 when the subcontractor who employed them announced the business was closing and Hyundai was terminating the contract. Hyundai insisted that it would it not directly hire the workers, and in addition, the workers would only be rehired by the new subcontracting company if they withdrew their membership in the union. The strike began when company thugs attacked protesting workers and prevented them from going to their workplace.

The UAW fully supports the strike by Hyundai precarious workers and plans to show solidarity for the courageous workers through a peaceful demonstration at the Hyundai America Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Dec. 6 at 4 p.m.

Plagued by unfair dismissals and miserably low wages, precarious workers are now shutting down assembly lines to voice their discontent. The occupation of a seat-making plant has resulted in losses by the company totaling $173 million as of Dec. 2. Mainly affected is production of the recently unveiled Hyundai Accent. Countless pre-orders on this new sub-compact vehicle have now been left unfilled.

Over one-fifth of Hyundai workers are hired on a temporary basis, often by false subcontractors in order to circumvent the higher pay scales and benefits enjoyed by those directly contracted by Hyundai. A July 22 ruling by the Supreme Court of Korea deemed this practice illegal, thereby mandating that precarious workers be offered secure positions through permanent contracts.
Hyundai has refused to comply with this decision, and the UAW now seeks to remind South Korea’s most profitable automaker that labor standards are not open to conjecture.

“Precarious workers should be treated the in the same manner and have the full rights of regular Hyundai workers. The UAW and our sister unions around the globe will be standing with these workers until Hyundai stops the violence and repression of these workers and recognizes them as regular Hyundai workers,” said UAW President Bob King. King will be traveling to Korea next week to show solidarity with the workers’ struggle.
“Hyundai is a very successful, profitable company and it is a moral outrage that instead of including workers in the success of the company, they are keeping more than 8,000 workers at poverty level wages and in complete uncertainty for themselves and their families. We join the Korean Metal Workers Union in demanding that Hyundai immediately hire these workers as full-time Hyundai employees and ask that all people of conscience join us in this demand,” King added.

Since the July ruling, precarious workers have joined the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) in large numbers in a push to demand ethical treatment. As of Dec. 1 the powerful labor organization has joined the strike of precarious workers, putting increased pressure on the company to reform its practices.

Monday’s demonstration will feature a speech on the importance of global solidarity by UAW President Bob King, and a vigil to show support for Korean workers.

Who: UAW and community members in solidarity with precarious workers in Korea
What: Demonstration in support of Hyundai temporary workers on strike in Korea
Where: Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc., 6800 Geddes Road, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48198
When: Monday, Dec. 6, 2010, at 4 p.m.

_________________________________________
See also

People's Solidarity for Social Progress
Illegal Dispatch, Labor Flexibilization and the Hyundai Irregular Workers Strike
Wol-san Liem, Researcher
Research Institute for Alternative Workers Movements
23 November 2010

Freep.com
UAW to rally for striking Hyundai workers
By BRENT SNAVELY
Free Press Business Writer
( * Text informed Steve Zeltzer and then Lotus Fong on Dec. 5, 2010)

Hankyoreh
KORUS FTA finalized after prolonged renegotiations
Dec. 4, 2010

Wall Street Journal
U.S. Sets Sweeping New Deal on Trade
Dec. 3, 2010
(* Text thankfully forwarded by Steve Zeltzer and then, Lotus Fong on Dec. 3, 2010)

New York Times
South Korea and U.S. Reach Deal on Trade
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: December 3, 2010
(* Text thankfully forwarded by Steve Zeltzer and then, Lotus Fong on Dec. 5, 2010)

Times
President “Pleased” with U.S., SoKo Trade Deal
Friday, December 3, 2010
(* Text thankfully forwarded by Lotus Fong on Dec. 5, 2010)

Video Fwd: A Hyundae automobile irregular worker set fire on his body...현대차 비정규직 노동자 분신...

A Hyundae automobile irregular worker set fire on his body, being infuriated by the constant violence of the company service corps.. Another incident that came from a sad and aggravating labor situation in Korea..

Video Source: Voice of People, Nov. 20, 2010 민중의 소리, 2010년 11월 20일(클릭)



* Related article 관련 기사
Voice of People, Nov. 20, 2010
민중의 소리, 2010년 11월 20일
[긴급속보] 현대차 비정규직 노동자 분신
생명에는 지장없어...지인들 "폭력으로 일관하는 사측에 항의한 것"

Text Fwd: Production of K2 tank to start soon K2 탱크 생산 곧 진행될 것임

Korea Times
Production of K2 tank to start soon
By Jung Sung-ki

The production of the homegrown K2 Black Panther main battle tank will begin soon after a one-year delay due to a problem with the tank’s “power pack” transmission system, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said Monday.

[...]

Unveiled in 2007, the K2, developed by the state-funded Agency for Defense Development and Hyundai Rotem, is a major defense product to fulfill domestic needs and sales overseas. The K2 technology was exported to Turkey years ago.

Text Fwd: Samsung attempts to cover up industrial accidents with money

'A civic organization member in support of the human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry holds a signboard during a one-person demonstration mourning the death Park Ji-hyeon, a Samsung Electronics employee who passed away due to complications from leukemia, in front of the Samsung Headquarters in Seoul‘s Seocho neighborhood, April 2.'

Hankyoreh
Samsung attempts to cover up industrial accidents with money
: Employees and bereaved family members say Samsung withheld consolation money until suits were dropped to dodge court recognition of industrial accidents
July 13, 2010
By Heo Jae-hyeon

A number of people have come forward and claimed that Samsung Electronics has offered large settlements to employees and their families in order to persuade them to drop industrial accident claims. Employees filed the claims after contracting diseases such as leukemia while working in the company’s semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) plants. Surviving family members of employees who have already died from diseases, as well as employees currently suffering from disease and their family members, have claimed that Samsung has offered hundreds of millions of won in settlements in order to persuade them to drop their industrial accident claims and terminate contact with civic organizations.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE READING.

______________________________________________________

* Below 'Hot Issue' sites are copied from the same link.

• [Hankyoreh 21] Samsung and Hyundai’s feast amid famine-2
• [Hankyoreh 21] Samsung and Hyundai’s feast amid famine-1
• [Hankyoreh 21] International investors request explanation from Samsung over occupational hazards allegations
• Handbook reportedly confirming dangerous chemicals at Samsung semiconductor factory to be released
• Samsung Life makes strong stock market debut
• Samsung management succession process in spotlight following Samsung Life IPO
• Supreme Court fines Samsung $10M for unfair subcontracting practices
• Samsung Life IPO surpasses predictions
• Samsung opens Giheung plant to media amid increasing concerns

Text Fw: South Korea’s Global Nuclear Ambitions

*Source (same as the below link): Tamsin Carlisle, ‘South Korean companies strike it rich in UAE’, The National (Abu Dhabi), March 2, 2010

Japan Focus

South Korea’s Global Nuclear Ambitions
David Adam Stott

Introduction

“We had been building nuclear power stations for 30 years but had failed in repeated attempts to break into international markets.”

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a January 2010 radio address. [1]

December 2009 was an historic month for the South Korean nuclear industry. In winning two bidding competitions to design and construct nuclear power plants in the Middle East, it dramatically signalled its arrival as an international force in the sector. The opening announcement concerned Jordan’s first nuclear research reactor whilst the second, and most important, was a massive contract to build at least four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The South Korean team was one of nine original bidders and beat off competition from France and an American-Japanese consortium from the final shortlist of three. As the USA, France and Japan account for almost half of the world’s total nuclear reactors, this was an impressive achievement, especially since it will be the first nuclear power plant that Korea has exported.

The initial deal with the UAE to construct the reactors is worth around US$20 billion to KEPCO (Korean Electric Power Company) and its partners, whilst Seoul estimates that Korean firms will reap a further harvest of US$20 billion over the 60-year lifespan of the reactors by way of maintenance, servicing and fuel supply contracts. With a total value estimated at around $40 billion, this was the largest contract awarded in the Gulf last year, and the biggest single contract that South Korean firms have ever secured overseas. Indeed,, aside from military hardware, it is likely also the biggest contract ever signed in the Gulf region. Moreover, both sides view the landmark contract as a stepping stone to a much deeper economic relationship in which both countries pour greater foreign investment into the other. Indeed, Abu Dhabi has recently endowed South Korean firms with numerous large contracts to upgrade its petrochemical infrastructure.

* For more reading and maps/ images, click HERE

Text Fwd: KAI Faces Downsizing

Korea Times
03-13-2010 00:37
[Exclusive]KAI Faces Downsizing
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the nation’s only aircraft maker, is facing a major restructuring and a significant reduction of its executives in coming weeks, amid lingering speculation that the company may be privatized.

Currently, the Korea Finance Corp. (KoFC), which was spun off from the state-owned Korea Development Bank last October, holds a 30.5 percent stake in KAI, which also has three other major shareholders — Samsung Techwin, Doosan DST and Hyundai Motor, each with a 20.5 percent stake.

KDB wanted to sell KAI last year under a government policy to privatize public firms but withdrew the decision temporarily in the face of opposition from KAI’s labor union and concerns that such a move could harm efforts to sell the T-50 supersonic trainer jet to Singapore.

Singapore is set to announce a final bidder for its trainer acquisition program this or next month. The T-50 is competing with the M-346 jet built by Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi.

In a news conference Jan. 28, KoFC Chairman Ryu Jae-han said his organization was looking to sell KAI and other assets in the first half of the year in consideration of the market situation.

``KoFC notified KAI of its restructuring plan last month,’’ an industry source told The Korea Times. ``In particular, the organization asked KAI to halve the company’s executive officers in a bid to streamline the aircraft maker.’’

Other industry sources said the major restructuring could be a preliminary step for privatization.

``It seems that KoFC wants to slim down KAI and increase the company’s efficiency and profitability. If so, the organization will be able to manage KAI in a more flexible manner,’’ the source said.

Observers say the result of the Singapore competition is expected to influence the fate of KAI, which develops and produces a wide range of civil and military aircraft, including helicopters, basic trainer jets and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Last year, KAI apparently lost a bid to Aermacchi to sell up to 48 trainers to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a $1.3 billion deal. But reports said in January that the UAE was considering reopening talks with KAI after failing to finalize an agreement with the Italian company.
But reports said in January that the UAE was considering reopening talks with KAI after failing to finalize an agreement with the Italian company.

Text Fwd: Landmark nuclear power plant deal sounds energy alarm within South Korea

* Image source/ caption: Same as the link below

'South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, seated, claps his hands together when Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) President and CEO Kim Ssang Su, left, and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) President Khaldoon Khalifa al-Mubarak, right, shake hands after signing a contract in Abu Dhabi Dec. 27.'

Hankyoreh
Landmark nuclear power plant deal sounds energy alarm within South Korea:As KEPCO consortia secures APR contract in UAE, environmentalists say nuclear power plant export is little cause for celebration in S.Korea
Dec. 28, 2009

South Korea has picked up project rights for a 40 billion dollar (47 trillion Won) nuclear power plant project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) announced Sunday (local time) that a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) was selected as the final contractor for the project. The KEPCO consoritium beat out France’s AREVA and a U.S. consortia led by General Electric Co. and the Japanese firm Hitachi Ltd.

The UAE project is the largest-scale overseas project order ever picked up by South Korea. The selection is further significant in that it marks the first exportation of South Korea’s independently developed nuclear power plant model APR. Environmental groups, meanwhile, continue to question the safety and utility of nuclear power plants.

Project Details and Selection Factors

The KEPCO consortium will begin work on the power plant next year in Sila, a city located 330 kilometers west of the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi. There will be four 1,400 MW-capacity plants at the location generating a total of 5,600 MW of power. Analysts say out of the 40 billion dollars, an estimated 20 billion dollars will go into design, construction and early operating expenses, while the remaining 20 billion dollars will go towards after service expenses for a period of 60 years after construction is completed for items such as plant fuel, operating costs, maintenance and waste treatment.

The primary factor in the selection of the South Korean nuclear power plant model, which has never been exported before, was its cost competitiveness. According to data from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the APR’s construction unit cost of 2,300 dollars per kilowatt (kW) was lower than those of its competitors AREVA at 2,900 dollars per kW, and GE at 3,583 dollars per kW. In terms of electricity generation unit cost, the South Korean model’s 3.03 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) was lower than AREVA’s 3.93 cents kWh, and less than half Hitachi’s 6.86 cents kWh.

Criticism from Environment Groups

Questions about its utility and safety make nuclear power a controversial energy source throughout the world. The chief concern has to do with fatal damages that could result from radiation leakage in the event of an accident. For this reason, environment groups have maintained that nuclear power cannot be a fundamental alternative for combating climate change and that the construction of nuclear power plants should be minimized.

These arguments factor into the dark shadow lurking behind all the praise about the export of South Korea’s first nuclear power plant model. Environmental activists are noting that the dazzling copy about the largest power plant export in South Korea’s history masks continued concerns about environmental safety. In particular, they are pointing out that while the Lee administration is heralding a “nuclear power Renaissance” and talking up nuclear power as a green energy resource, safety concerns and other issues remain topics of debate within the international community. Indeed, nuclear power, unlike other renewal energy sources like wind and solar power, is not included in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an instrument for greenhouse gas reductions included under article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. Although countries like France and Japan place a high emphasis on nuclear power and have been arguing for its inclusion, no conclusion was reached on the matter at the recent climate change conference in Copenhagen.

Environmental activists are also claiming that the benefits of nuclear power plant construction as a future industry are questionable, since global demand for nuclear power plant construction is not very large and Korea still has not secured original technology. “There is a demand for new plants mainly in countries where civil society is not active, like China and countries in the Middle East, but there is no explosive demand at the worldwide level,” said Energy Justice Actions head Lee Heon-seok. “Also, because we still do not have the original technology, nuclear power plants lack future prospects in industry terms,” Lee noted.

Yanglee Won-young, head of Korean Federation for Environmental Movement’s committee on climate and energy, says,　“Nuclear power may conceivably be a necessary temporary substitute for fossil fuels, but a better alternative would be to promote energy efficiency or develop renewable energy sources.” Yanglee added, “It is undesirable for South Korea to go all in on nuclear power.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]　


* Related article

Yonhap news
2009/12/28 10:07 KST
S. Korea eyes nuclear plant deal from Turkey: officials


* Related blog

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/12/text-fwd-s-korea-becomes-worlds-6th.html
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Text Fwd: S. Korea becomes world's 6th nuclear reactor exporting nation

Text Fwd: S. Korea becomes world's 6th nuclear reactor exporting nation

Yonhap News
S. Korea becomes world's 6th nuclear reactor exporting nation
By Lee Joon-seung

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Yonhap) -- A deal that could amount to US$40 billion clinched Sunday by South Korea to build commercial reactors for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) heralds the emergence of the Asian country as the world's sixth commercial nuclear exporting nation.

The $20 billion agreement between a consortium led by the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. calls for the building of four 1,400-megawatt light water nuclear reactors by 2020 near Sila on the Persian Gulf 330 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi. With post-construction maintainance and management contracts the deal could reach $40 billion, officials said.

The reactors are to be the indigenously developed APR-1400 units currently being built in South Korea.

In the past, only the United States, France, Canada, Russia and Japan have won overseas deals to build nuclear reactors, with South Korea only managing to sell components used for reactors and nuclear facilities.

The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the KEPCO-led consortium made up of such companies as Hyundai Corp., Samsung C&T Corp. and Doosan Heavy and Engineering Co., sidestepped stiff competition from France's energy giant Areva SA and the partnership made up of General Electric Co. of the United States and Hitachi Ltd. of Japan.

U.S. energy firm Westinghouse Electric Co. and Japan's Toshiba Corp. will also benefit from the deal by providing components to Doosan.

The knowledge economy ministry said securing the contract marks the first time Seoul won the rights to sell a complete commercial atomic reactor abroad despite having developed knowhow to design and build its own indigenous reactors without outside help.

"The UAE deal is testament to the competitiveness and technological prowess enjoyed by South Korea in this sector after beginning its commercial nuclear generation in the 1970s," said Na Ki-yong, head of the ministry's nuclear energy division.

He claimed that by winning the deal there will be greater global recognition for South Korean reactors that could help the South Korean industry grab further orders down the road.

The official said that the construction agreement could grow to $40 billion if Seoul provides nuclear fuel, helps manage the plants and conducts maintenance over the next 60 years. It may also help create 11,000 jobs in the country for the next 10 years.

"The reactor deal is equivalent to the sale of 1 million Hyundai NF Sonata sedans, 62 Airbus A380 double-decker passenger jets and 180,300,000-ton tankers," he claimed.

Other experts said that the UAE agreement is expected to give South Korea an edge when it bids to win prospective construction deals in Turkey and Jordan.

Turkey said that it wants to build a second nuclear power plant in the Sinop region, while Jordan has expressed plans to construct two 1 million kilowatt reactors near Aqaba.

South Korea, which is one of the few countries in the world to have continuously built nuclear power reactors after it first unit went on line in 1978, may be able to play a role in the building of reactors in the United States, China and India down the road.

Many North American and European countries had halted new construction after the Chernobyl disaster and Three Mile Island incidents.

Washington and New Delhi plan to build 30 and 50 new reactors in the coming years, while Beijing said that it intends to increase its nuclear energy output from 9 million kilowatts in 2008 to 86 million kilowatts by 2020.

Janice Dunn Lee, deputy chief of the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency, said that about 50 countries around the world with no past experience have shown interest in building up their nuclear energy capabilities.

It said there may be upwards of 1,040 nuclear reactors in operation around the world by 2050, from around 440 today.

KEPCO, South Korea's state-operated power supplier, attributed the deal to price competitiveness, high "capacity factor" and proven track record in safety.

In 2008, the capacity factor or average operational rate stood at 93.3 percent which is 14 percent higher than the world average, while there have been no serious accidents in over 30 years of operating nuclear power.

South Korea is the fifth largest operator of nuclear power in the world with 20 commercial reactors accounting for 36 percent of all electricity generated in the country. It plans to build 12 new reactors by 2022 with eight to be in operation by 2016.

"The country has accumulated extensive infrastructure to build and maintain nuclear power reactors with over 20,000 experts in this field. Such a solid base has made it possible for the country to build reactors faster than competitors," a KEPCO spokesman said. Faster construction time translates into a cut in building costs.

He claimed South Korea has been able to construct a reactor in about 52 months in the past, while in the United States it took 57 months and 60 months for France.

yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)


* Related blog

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post.html
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Text Fwd: Lee Visits UAE for Nuclear Power Plant Deal


* Related articles

Yonhap News
S. Korea signs nuclear deal worth potential US$40 bln with UAE
ABU DHABI, Dec. 27 (Yonhap)

Yonhap News
(News Analysis) S. Korea wins chance to become nuclear powerhouse with UAE deal

Text Fwd: Lee Visits UAE for Nuclear Power Plant Deal

* Image source: same as the article below

Korea Times
12-26-2009 06:28
Lee Visits UAE for Nuclear Power Plant Deal
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

President Lee Myung-bak is to leave for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Saturday for a summit with President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on a nuclear power plant deal, Cheong Wa Dae announced Friday.

The summit diplomacy comes at a time when Abu Dhabi's choice of developer for a nuclear power plant is nearing, officials said. The President is to return home Sunday.

The presidential office said that Lee decided to visit the Middle East country as Abu Dhabi is scheduled to choose the developer this month.

Companies from four countries _ Korea, France, the United States and Japan _ have submitted bids for the project.

According to the presidential office, the Korean bidder is a consortium of the Korea Electric Power Corp., Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and Samsung C&T Corp.

[* Lee Myung-Bak was a Hyundai Engineering and Construction man before entering the politics, Click HERE.]

The office said the nuclear plant project is known to be large, but that the exact scale has yet to be confirmed.

It added that if Korea is chosen as the developer, its effect on the economy will be immense.

Since 1978 when the first commercial nuclear power plant was built in Korea, a total of 20 reactors have been introduced, providing almost 40 percent of the country's electricity.

Korea imports about 97 percent of its energy resources. Power generation through new nuclear facilities is expected to increase by 56 percent by 2020.

Since his inauguration early last year, Lee has called for ``green growth'' as a new growth strategy.

Nuclear energy produces virtually no emissions and as a result, few negative effects on the atmosphere. The government has considered it as the most suitable alternative energy source, given that it helps reduce green house gas emissions.

The market for nuclear power plants is growing worldwide. The government expects nuclear power plant technology to be another engine for growth, following semiconductors, ship- building and automobiles.

Lee Dong-kwan, senior presidential secretary for public affairs, told reporters that ``if Korea is chosen as the developer for the UAE project, it will mean the country's overall triumph in technology, diplomacy, and negotiations.''

Korea has three competitive edges in nuclear power plants. It is ahead of the other countries in meeting construction deadlines, is price competitive and has successfully run nuclear power plants at a time when other countries have scaled down the addition of new facilities out of concerns over safety.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr


* Related article

Yonhap News
(LEAD) President Lee heads to UAE to help sell nuclear power plants
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap)

Text Fwd: [Analysis] Next steps for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

* Image source/ caption: Same as below

'Anyang City officials from Gyeonggi Province carry out Park Kwang-won, the Anyang branch leader of Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU), from the branch office in order to close the office located in Anyang City Office, Dec. 4.'

Hankyoreh
[Analysis] Next steps for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions:
Despite setbacks from the KRWU strike, KCTU still has plans to hold rallies in December while KMWU has promised to strike if Lee administration labor policy revisions are implemented
Dec.5,2009 12:41 KST

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is being forced to go on the defensive. The Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU), one of the umbrella union’s primary sources of power, ended its strike Thursday without gaining any clear concessions, while the legal foundation for the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) remains unclear. Moreover, the possibility of the KCTU involving itself in labor policy formation has been shut off ever since the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), Ministry of Labor, Korea Employers Federation (KEF) and Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) have been involved in four-party talks while excluding KCTU from participating.

The Strategy to Exclude KCTU

The recent Lee administration response to pending labor issues appears to be intentionally aimed at excluding KCTU. It has responded rather unusually to the KRWU strike in a pan-government fashion, almost as if it were in a direct fight with the union. Police have been conducting surprise search and seizure raids, Ministers have been issuing joint statements related to the economy and labor issues, and President Lee Myung-bak has been making public statements about the illegality of strikes.

In addition, FKTU has broken off cooperative relations with KCTU and has entered into four-party talks over the largest of pending labor issues, including the multiple union system and the ban on the wage payments to full-time unionists. KCTU had been planning on forming an agenda on major labor issues in solidarity with FKTU, but that has become water under the bridge. It appears that the Lee administration’s siege on the KCTU is complete.

Setbacks during the winter struggle?

Accordingly, the possibility is growing that labor’s big winter struggle set for December may be going nowhere. As FKTU switches its strategies from strikes to negotiations, whether it will maintain plans for participation in a general strike has become unclear. What now remains is that the KCTU may launch a strike on its own, however, the umbrella union’s ability to organize on the ground among its member unions has been deteriorating. The election of a new KCTU chairman is set for next month, and each individual member union is going into election mode.

The overarching theme in the recent labor struggle has been intense pressure by the Lee administration, symbolized by the termination of the KRWU strike. Lee Byeong-hun, chairman of the labor committee of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), said PSPD had hoped the strike would be resolved positively with the Lee administration correcting its misguided labor policies, but instead, the situation has become more disheartening. Lee added, "Accordingly, unions under the KCTU umbrella are contracting."

KCTU, meanwhile, appears unconcerned. Lee Su-bong, spokesman for KCTU, said KCTU will use the case of KRWU as an opportunity for KCTU to prepare themselves for what might be further pressure from the administration. On Dec. 12, KCTU will hold a rally to oppose the Lee government’s repression of government employees and public sector unions. In addition, on Dec. 16, they plan to hold a 10 thousand-person demonstration in Seoul.

Analysts say whether the Lee government is able to pass revisions to the Labor Union Law pertaining to pending issues, including the multiple union system and ban on wages to full-time union activists, will serve as the watershed in the labor struggle. The Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), one of KCTU’s core unions, released a statement Friday saying that if the Lee administration starts the ban on wages to full-time unionists in large workplaces, some 90 thousand employees at Hyundai, Kia and GM Daewoo will respond with a general strike.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]


* Related article

Hankyoreh
Ban on wage payments to full-time unionists in South Korea will take effect July 1:
Opposition parties and KCTU calls tripartite agreement to delay multiple union system and introduction of ban on wage payments to full-time unionists a compromise

Text Fwd: Military Slamed for Neglecting Soldiers' Welfare

* Image source: same as the article below

Korea Times
[Exclusive] Military Slamed for Neglecting Soldiers' Welfare
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Dec. 2, 2009

The military is under fire for turning its back on requirements for the safety and welfare of soldiers in the field.

A case in point is the upgrade plan of K1A1 battle tanks. In 2007, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the Army and the developer of the tank, Hyundai Rotem, consulted one another about the requirements for the K1A1 upgrade.

Several upgrade items were decided on at that time with a focus on equipping the tank with the C4I network-centric battlefield management systems. The modification work is scheduled to start in 2012 after the production of the K1A1s has been completed.

Ignoring a suggestion by the Army and Hyundai Rotem, however, the JCS excluded the installation of an air conditioning system in the tank from the list of upgrade requirements, according to a military source.

``The military has come up with an ambitious catch phrase of developing advanced and digitalized armed forces. But the mindset of decision-makers in the military has rarely changed and appears to remain in the older, analog era,'' the source said.

The rationale behind the JCS's decision was that ``an air conditioning system doesn't affect field operations much, and soldiers can and should overcome such a difficulty in the field,'' the source said on condition of anonymity.

Critics say such an argument is anachronistic and contradictory to the military's pursuit of improving the welfare of soldiers.

The soldiers have also begun to complain about JCS's negligence.

``In the summer, it's quite tough to conduct a field exercise inside a battle tank. Tank operators sometimes suffer heat exhaustion and may suffer heat stroke on extremely hot days,'' a sergeant at a mechanized division in Gyeonggi Province told The Korea Times.

``If the military plans to spend money for upgrading the K1A1 tank to an up-to-date one, why doesn't it consider installing the air conditioning system? The military leadership should understand what soldiers in the field really want, not just speaking of military modernization.''

Most high-end tanks in operation around the world, including the M1A1 tank used by the U.S. Forces Korea, are equipped with the air conditioning system, a basic operational requirement. The indigenous K2 Black Panther main battle tank, which will begin service in the coming years, will also have the system.

Hyundai Rotem is worried that the lack of an air conditioning system might negatively affect exporting the K1A1 to Southeast Asia and other nations in warmer regions.

During the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2009 held in October, delegates from Thailand, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia showed keen interest in the K1A1 upgrade plans and the K2 tank, according to officials at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

Against that backdrop, Hyundai has already invested in developing an air conditioning system for the K1A1, without budget support from the military.

``We're developing an air conditioning system for the K1A1 and hope that the JCS and DAPA will review the plan positively in terms of the welfare of soldiers as well as the tank's future exports,'' a Hyundai official said, requesting to remain anonymous.

Earlier this year, the JCS was under fire for neglecting the safety of sailors operating in waters off the piracy-ridden Somalia coast. Even after receiving a warning about the possibility that Somali pirates could acquire surface-to-air guided missiles, the JCS didn't' take any measure to protect its sailors there, nor did they install missile protection equipment in a destroyer's Lynx helicopter.

Almost all navies deployed to the Somali waters are operating maritime helicopters equipped with flare launchers, infrared guided missile countermeasure devices and radar warning receivers.

The JCS at that time promised it would come up with countermeasures to cope with any potential threat but has failed to deliver on its promise since then. The only measure it took was to supply 25-kilometer-range marine binoculars for spotters in the helicopter of the Cheonghae unit.

Intelligence authorities said Somalia's pirates were presumed to have obtained Stinger shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles from al-Qaeda. The Stinger missile can hit targets flying as high as 3,500 meters at a speed of Mach 2. It has a range of 8 kilometers.

The Somali pirates also run sophisticated operations using high-tech equipment such as satellite phones, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers and GPS receivers. They are also known to have acquired Soviet-era anti-aircraft missiles such as the SA-7 and SA-18.

leeth@koreatimes.co.kr

Text Fwd: 3rd 1,800-Ton Submarine to Begin Service Tuesday

* Image source/ caption: Korea Times, Dec. 1, 2009

'State-of-art submarine: Crew members salute from the Navy’s latest 1,800-ton KSS-II submarine, which became operational, Tuesday. The commissioning ceremony took place at the Naval Operations Command in Busan. The nation’s third Type-214 submarine was named after Ahn Jung-geun, the independence fighter who assassinated Japan’s first resident general, Hirobumi Ito, in 1909. The dieselelectric submarine was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in cooperation with Germany’s Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft.'

Korea Times
11-30-2009 19:13
3rd 1,800-Ton Submarine to Begin Service Tuesday
By Jung Sung-ki, Staff Reporter

The Navy will begin to operate its third 1,800-ton KSS-II submarine Tuesday after 18 months of sea trials.

The commissioning ceremony will be held at the Naval Operations Command in Busan, it said in a news release.

The third Type-214 submarine was named after Ahn Jung-geun, a Korean independence fighter who assassinated Japan's first resident general, Hirobumi Ito, in 1909 in retaliation for Japan's annexation of Korea.

The diesel-electric submarine, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries under technical cooperation with Germany's Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), is expected to play a key role in sea denial to North Korean and other hostile forces, and anti-submarine warfare, Navy officials said.

The submarine is equipped with state-of-the-art torpedoes and submarine-to-surface missiles.

It has a maximum submerged speed of 20 knots and a crew of 40. One submarine costs around $1 billion to produce.

The 65.3-meter-long submarine is equipped with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP), which improves its underwater performance and gives it stealth capability.

It can submerge to depths of up to 400 meters and carry out underwater operations for as long as two weeks.

Its operational radius reaches Guam.

The ISUS-90 integrated sensor submarine system enables operators to deal with variable information and detect up to 300 targets simultaneously.

The Navy plans to create a submarine command by 2018. To that end, the Navy will launch six more Type-214 submarines by 2018 and build indigenous 3,000-ton submarines after 2018.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

Text Fwd: Separated families begin reunion trip to N. Korea

* Image Source: [Elders expecting the family reunion tomorrow]
photo by the Joint Reporters' Group for the Internet photos,
Tongil News, Sept. 25, 2009

Yonhap News
2009/09/26 09:00 KST
Separated families begin reunion trip to N. Korea
By Kim Hyun

SOKCHO, South Korea, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- A group of elderly South Koreans departed for North Korea on Saturday to be briefly reunited with their long-lost relatives there, the first such event in nearly two years.

Ninety-six South Koreans, 30 of them too frail to walk alone and accompanied by one family member each, headed to the Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast by bus, through the heavily-fortified demilitarized zone.

"It's been almost sixty years. I am happy and also confused," Kim Un-seon, 86, said. He was set to meet his son and daughter-in-law from the North's Hwanghae Province for the first time since leaving his home at the onset of the Korean War in 1950.

The elderly gathered in this eastern seaside town just south of the border on Friday. Four others, initially selected in the 100-member list, were unable to come because of their frail health, according to the National Red Cross of South Korea which set up the reunions with its North Korean counterpart. More than three-quarters of the participants are 70 or older.

The reunions are being held in two separate events. During the first three days, the South Koreans will be reunited with their 240 relatives in the North who were found to be still alive and able to travel. In the second segment of the event, 99 North Koreans will be reunited with 449 relatives living in the South.

South Korean Red Cross President Yoo Chong-ha traveled to the North with the South Korean families, and a meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Jang Jae-on, is expected during the earlier segment of the event.

About 600,000 people in the South are believed to have family in the North from whom they have been separated since the 1950-53 war. Candidates were first selected through a computer lottery, with the final lists being drawn from applicants whose relatives were located, giving priority to immediate family members and the elderly.

The humanitarian event was arranged after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed last month to resume the reunions in a meeting with Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group, a major investor in the North. The North has since followed up with a series of other conciliatory moves, such as lifting restrictions on a South Korean-run industrial park on its soil.

Political tensions mounted after the conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak came to power in the South last year. Lee toughened up on the North's nuclear drive and suspended massive aid, while North Korea boycotted dialogue and suspended the family reunions. The mood further chilled after a North Korean soldier in the Mount Kumgang resort area shot and killed a South Korean tourist who had strayed into an off-limits military zone in July last year.

hkim@yna.co.kr

The Three Unification Activists Got the First Trial

* Image source/ description :
‘The first trial for the [three] staffs of the PKAR, South Korean branch opened at the room NO. 424m at the Seoul Central Distict Court, in the afternoon of July 17 (photo by a reporter, Ko, Sung-Jin, Tongil News)’

* One can see the three names of Lee, Kyu-Jae, Lee, Kywong-Won and Choi, Eun-A with the list of charge applied to them, national security law, at the bottom of the photo.

* Source informed at the PKAR site

* Below is the unofficial translation of the original Korean article

Tongil news(meaning Unification News)

“The Judgment of the Unification Movements in the [Ex-President] Roh Moo Hyun Era."
:The First Trial of the ‘PKAR Case’ opened…About 100 People from Various Fields Cheered [the Accused].
July 17, 2009 by Koh, Sung-Jin, kolong81@tongilnews.com


“The Trial of the PKAR is the judgment of the unification movements in the [Ex-President] Roh Moo Hyun era”

In the first trial of the three [unification activists] including Lee, Kyu-Jae, the chairman of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification (PKAR), South Korean branch, held at the Room No. 424 at the Seoul Central Distict Court, Seocho-Gu, Seoul, 2pm on July 17, [2009], Cho, Young-Sun, attorney at law, the counsel for the accused, spoke as such, appealing the fair judgment by the judges.

The attorney, Cho lodged the doubt, “ It is suspected whether it has the political character or not that the evaluation of the civilian inter-Korean interchange within the legal space under the Roh Moo Hyun government for five years has suddenly become the problematic as the Lee Myung Bak government launched.”

It is for the bringing forward the question on the labeling the suspicion of the ‘being directed by order from [the North Korea] to the civilian inter-Korean interchanges, problematized under the national security law, despite the fact that those have been approved by the Ministry of Unification from November, 2004 to 2007. It is the reason why this trial has gotten attention.

Lee, Kyeong-Won, Secretary of the PKAR, South Korean branch, [one of the three accused] saying, “ Didn’t the prosecutors indict [us] for the time because the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had known all the contents of the dialogue record by the its enforcing of the search for all the emails in 2004, 2005 & 2006 and because there was no obvious proof of violation that [our activities] were against the safety of the national existence or the order of the liberal democracy, did it?”, emphasized in his opening statement that the [PKAR] inter-Korean interchange activities were progressed under the legal process.

Next, he refuted the contents of the indictment by the prosecutors that “It is impossible to say it as the violation of the National Security Law as [the communication] with Park, Yong, Vice-Secretary of the Joint Office, the PKAR was in fact, public as the Joint Office had been the wiretapped. ”

Choi, Eun-A, Chief of the Publicity team of the PKAR, South Korean branch and another accused also criticized in her opening statement that “ It is implausible that the very same people who have legally approved the civilian inter-Korean interchanges when the inter-Korean relationship had gradually changed and the policies had been reflected into them, now claim, to shame on their faces themselves, that those are the illegal activities as the government was changed.”

Lee, Kyu-Jae , Chairman of the PKAR, the last accused, South Korean branch also raised his voice that “ The measure of the National Security Law has been differently applied according to the changing governments. On same cases, the Roh Moon Hyun government legally permitted us to trip back and forth to the North Korea but now the Lee Myung Bak government is arresting us” “ I can hardly erase the suspicion that the [government] is trying to manipulate the national security case to overcome its crisis, as I see that [the NIS] has waited for five years under the same condition even though it could arrest us five years ago [if the NIS had wanted]”

“ There is no clear point of practical harm that would influence the whole society.”

[In the trial], the point whether the PKAR is the enemy [North Korea] –benefiting organization or not was dealt with beside the controversy of the applying the national security law to the ‘legal civilian inter-Korean exchanges’.

So to speak, it is the point whether the principles, rules, and activities of the PKAR who aims those have the provable harm ness to the whole society.

Attorney at law, Cho, Young-Sun saying, “ The prosecutors have to clearly explain the relationship of the cause-result of how the fact that the logic of the PKAR is same with the North Korea is dangerous to the whole society.”, claimed that “There is no clear point of the harm that would influence the existence of the national safety and the order of the democracy .”

Choi, Eun-A, Chief of the Publicity team of the PKAR saying that “According to the logic that we have praised, followed, encouraged [the North Korea], only by the fact that our logic is similar to that of the North Korea, then the Hyundai Asan, [a South Korean conglomerate] who built the Kaesong Industrial Complex [in the North Korea] should be said that it is by the order of the North Korea, as well.”, also explained that “There was no unilateral way of communication from any side.”

Beside above, the [three] all repeatedly criticized through all their opening statements that the National Security Law is the vicious law whose application measures have been ambiguous & willful and which have been abused by the conservative powers to maintain their vested rights.

Attorneys at law, Request the Lift of the Freezing of the Bank Account of the Chairman, Lee, Kyu-Jae
: Civil Society, “ We Will Request Park, Yong, the Vice-secretary of the Joint Office of the PKAR to Be the Witness for the Court”

The attorneys at law also requested the lift of the freezing of the bank account [of the PKAR], saying all its bank transactions have been stopped after the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Seoul branch, froze the bank account named of the Chairman, Lee, Kyu-Jae on last June 3.

On this first trial day, about 100 people from the various fields entirely filled the court room. They cheered [the three accused] while greeting one another, asking after one another’ health.

The next trial will be reopened on August 21, from 10am to 6pm. The judges said that they choose the date, considering that it would require the preparing days for the intense examination and announced that it would open the court every Friday for the case after August 21.

In advance the trial, the ‘Civil Joint Committee against the Oppression of the PKAR’ had the press interview at the office of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, Seocho-Gu, Seoul, saying “We intend to aggressively prove the legal activities of the PKAR “ and disclosed that “ We, despite all the hardships, will request many staffs in the office of the PKAR, North Korean branch and Park, Yong, the Vice president of the Joint office of the PKAR to be the witness at the court room, South Korea,”.

As matter of the suspicion of the ‘being directed by order from [the North Korea], the committee also fixed the factual point that “So called ‘directing order’ means that the relationship between the director and the directed is straight and vertical. However, the relationships among the branches of the South Korea, North Korea, overseas, PKAR are not higher-lower but those of the equal."

* Related blogs

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/07/six-detained-unification-activists-have.html
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Three Detained Unification Activists have the First Trial on July 17

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/05/text-fwd-global-network-letter-to-human.html
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Text Fwd: [ Korean translated: Global Network] Letter to Human Rights Office, Republic of Korea Consulate-General Office

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/05/text-fwd-statement-oppression-of-pan.html
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Text Fwd: Statement: The oppression of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification (PKAR) is killing of June 15.


* Related Korean Articles(Pan Korean Alliance For Reunification, South Korean branch site)

http://tongil-i.net/2006/bbs/bbs/tb.php/0507c/116
남측본부
범민련 구속인사 1차 재판에 즈음한 기자회견
09-07-20
Press Interview Upon the 1st trial of the Arrested PKAR Unification Activists

http://tongil-i.net/2006/bbs/bbs/tb.php/data2/319
[공지] [변호인 의견서] 범민련 구속인사 1차 재판 변호인 모두 의견서
[Announcement] [ Opinion of the Attorney of Law] Opening Statement by the Attorneys of Law upon the lst Trial of the PKAR Activists
09-07-20


http://tongil-i.net/2006/bbs/bbs/tb.php/0507c/110
09-06-24 18:21
범민련남측본부
범민련 인사 구속기소에 즈음한 기자회견
Press Interview upon the Indictment against the PKAR activists