Arrest Warrant Issued for Union Leader of Kia Motors’ Gwangju Plant

The Gwangju District Public Prosecutor’s Office, investigating corruption in the recruitment process of Kia Motors’ Gwangju plant, issued a warrant of arrest for the head of the labor union at the plant, identified as Jeong, on Sunday. Jeong is charged with allegedly receiving 180 million won from job applicants seeking temporary positions in the production plant.

An official at the prosecutors’ office said that Jeong had expressed his willingness to report to the office on Monday through his lawyer last week. However, the prosecutors lost contact with him, so a team has been set up to find out his whereabouts.

As Park Hong-gui, former head of Kia Motors’ labor union, admitted Sunday Jeong’s receipt of the bribes, when Jeong appears to the prosecutors’ office, the prosecutors will focus the interrogation on whether the money was handed to the company, whether brokers were involved in the process, and how many people might have taken part in the alleged racketeering.

Park said that he went to the Gwangju plant and confirmed the fact that Jeong had received 180 million won from the parents of seven or eight applicants. Park also said that 1,079 people among those hired by the company could have been employed thanks to requests and recommendations from union officials, company’s executives, and politicians. Therefore, an expansion of the scope of the investigation seems inevitable.

Seung-Ho Jung Jin-Kyun Kil shjung@donga.com leon@donga.com