KGEU and KTU Go Public in Their Support for DLP

Korean Government Employee’s Union (KGEU) officially announced on Tuesday that it will support the Democratic Labor Party in the upcoming 17th general election.

However, the government confronted by saying it will strictly penalize the public servant’s illegal actions relating to the election. This is expected to lead to a friction between the government and the KGEU and the Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union (KTU) since both the KGEU and the KTU announced their backing of the Democratic Labor Party.

The KGEU held a press conference this day in their office in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul and said, “As it is the only progressive political party in this country, we would like to give our support to the DLP, the uncorrupted party representing the common people and the laborers, and make complete the democratization of Korean society.”

The KGEU said, “We have come to support the DLP because of its main principle and policy, which includes annihilating corruption and bringing reform in public offices, are unanimous to the KGEU’s goal and vision,” explaining the backdrop behind their political views. The KGEU also claimed, “We will strictly abide the law in being politically neutral from the viewpoint of our work, but we cannot concur with ‘politically neutrality’ which denies even the freedom to have political thoughts and beliefs just because we are public servants.”

The KGEU also revealed that they would send letters to the members which manifest support for the DLP and is signed by the chairman of the committee. In addition, they will support the DLP candidate with the best chance of winning while campaigning to reject the unsuccessful candidate and will initiate a campaign to raise money for political funds.

The KGEU agreed to deny the request of the police until the general election which calls for Kim Young-kil, chairman of the committee, and nine other top officers to appear before the police prior to 2 p.m. this day and all the top officers will go on a strike at the office until the day of the election as a means of protesting against the government’s policy of banning political activities.

Accordingly, in order to prevent violating an act by public officers in not keeping political neutrality, the government plans to have special inspection by public offices such as Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The government has stated that the inspection will focus on the public officer’s support for certain party or candidates and other influence on election, KGEU, KTU, and other public officer’s illegal group actions.

The government will hand the case of violating actions by public officers in keeping political neutrality to special investigations team and will punish the violator of illegal election activities with no exception.

Hyun-Doo Lee ruchi@donga.com