Police Raid Head Office of Teachers` Union

Police conducted yesterday a surprise raid on the head office of the Korea Teachers and Educational Workers` Union, which released an anti-government statement June 18 in defiance of the law.

This was the first raid and search on the union`s head office since its establishment in 1989.

Police in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo and Dongjak districts mobilized some 30 policemen to conduct simultaneous raid and search operations at the union`s head office in Yeongdeungpo and its other Seoul branch in the Sadang district at 5 a.m. yesterday.

Among the items seized were 10 Intranet servers, four computers and 201 nametags for participants in a national meeting of the union`s representatives, as well as contact addresses of its members and documents on its anti-government statement amounting to 700 pages.

Police have been conducting a probe into the declaration and got a search warrant issued by the Seoul Central District Court Thursday. Based on the documents seized yesterday, they plan to investigate union head Chung Chin-hoo and other leaders who spearheaded the declaration on charges of violating the civil servant law.

The union in a news conference yesterday blasted the raid and search an “unjustifiable case of police enforcement.”

constant25@donga.com