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2 April, 2003Internationally-known Korean trade union leader and former metalworker has been released from prison.
KOREA, REP: Dan Byung-ho, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and former metalworkers' leader, was released from prison on April 2. Dan was made to serve the full term of a 20-month prison sentence for "obstruction of business" and leading an "illegal" strike in 2001.
As he stepped out the doors of Seoul Prison at midnight, over 500 well-wishers from trade unions, the Korean Democratic Labour Party, NGOs and the news media were there to greet Dan.
In a speech at the prison gate, he said that although some improvements could be seen since the country's new president, Roh Moo-hyun, took office in February, basic things such as Korea's neo-liberal economic policies were not changing. Dan also spoke about the conflict in Iraq, encouraging a build-up of the anti-war movement and opposition to sending any Korean troops to the war zone.
Marcello Malentacchi, IMF general secretary, who visited the KCTU president several times during this last incarceration -- over the years, Korean authorities imprisoned Dan five times for his trade union activities -- expressed how happy he was to hear Dan was free, describing him as "one of the greatest trade union leaders I have ever known."
Writing to the IMF general secretary today, the Korean Metal Workers' Federation president, Baek Seun-whan, declared when Dan appeared at the prison gate, how "I hoped it could have been you and IMF affiliates to have greeted Dan and share the joy of his release, because it is the IMF and its affiliates that make it possible for our members and Dan to realise how powerful and valuable international solidarity is... On behalf of 160,000 KMWF members, please send my best regards and thanks to the IMF's members worldwide."
In 2002, the IMF organised two international action days on Korea, to draw attention to the plight of the many trade unionists in jail there for their trade union activities. Some top metal union officials were released as a result of these campaigns, but not Dan.
After a two-week complete medical checkup, Dan intends to continue his work leading the KCTU.