5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Cho Nam-ho, chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction(HHIC) bows in apology during a press conference in the port city of Busan on Aug. 10. A long-standing labor dispute at the shipyard, located at the port, has grown into a social and political debacle. Unionized employees at Hanjin Heavy had been on strike since December, protesting against the company's decision to cut about 400 jobs as part of its restructuring drive.
The embattled HHIC chairman vowed to make efforts to settle an eight-month-long labor dispute triggered by the shipbuilder's massive layoffs. After arriving home earlier Wednesday from what critics have called a monthlong escape abroad, Cho Nam-ho vowed, "I will fulfill all my duties in order to revive the company." (Yonhap)
But possibly (f*cking) Cho just wanted to say, that he will call for the riot cops to "...bring the company management back on track". According to 'Korea Herald' "He did not hint at the possibility of withdrawing layoffs or reinstating the fired workers in the near future".
MUST READ! A. Lankov contributed the following interesting piece for today's Asia Times (HK):
The secret world of North Korea's new rich
When people in the West talk about North Korea, they usually imagine a country of hunger and floods, populated by starving children, subsistence farmers and goose-stepping female soldiers. These stereotypes - like nearly all stereotypes - are not completely unfounded, but misleading nonetheless.
North Korea is a poor place, no doubt, even though recent reports about looming famine seem to be part exaggeration and part deliberate stratagem, initiated by the regime to obtain aid from the international community. Nonetheless, 2011 Pyongyang has a booming restaurant scene and the traffic on its broad streets - once notoriously empty - is steadily increasing in volume.
Well-fed North Koreans are frequenting newly opened sushi bars and beer houses as well as a local hamburger joint. On the streets of the North Korean capital, one can see a lot of visibly undernourished people, but also a number of women clad in designer clothes.
One should not be surprised by these sights, which can be encountered not only in Pyongyang, but also in a number of major North Korean cities.
The past 20 years saw the slow-motion collapse of a hyper-centralized economy that was once a defining feature of North Korea's "nationalist Stalinism". Grassroots capitalism has replaced state socialism and this quiet transformation predictably brought in a remarkable income inequality.
North Korea's new rich made their fortunes amid the economic chaos and social disruption of the great famine of 1996-1999. This new bourgeoisie matured in the next decade as the North Korean economy started to partially recover from the disastrous 1990s.
As a North Korean female refugee said to this author a few days ago: "Until 2005, all but officials lived similar lives. But after 2005, everybody can see the difference between rich and poor." Perhaps the change is difficult to associate with just one year, but on balance she seems to be correct.
Who are they - the North Korean new rich? The upper crust of this social group consists of high-level officials. Some of them have gained their wealth through illegal means, but many have seen their business activities permitted and even actively encouraged by the government. Most of the money is made in foreign trade, with China being by the far the most significant partner.
Many North Korean companies, despite being technically owned by the state, are effectively private and are run by top officials and their relatives.
That said, these people are not that frequently seen on the streets of Pyongyang. They live in their own enclosed world, of which not much is known.
But if we go one or two steps down, we will encounter a very different type of North Korean entrepreneur - somebody who has made his or her (yes, surprising many of them are women) money more or less independent of the state.
Complete independence is not possible because every North Korean businessman has to pay officials just to make sure that they will not ask too many questions and turn a blind eye to activities that are still technically illegal. In many cases, North Korean entrepreneurs prefer to disguise their private operations under the cover of some state agency.
Take for example Pak. In his early 40s, he runs a truck company together with a few friends. The company has seven trucks and largely specializes in moving salt from salt ponds on the seacoast to major wholesale markets. The company employs a couple of dozen people, but officially it does not exist. On paper, all trucks are owned by state agencies and Pak's employees are also officially registered as workers of state enterprises.
Pak bought used trucks in China, paying the Chinese owners with cash. He then took them to North Korea where he had the vehicles registered with various government agencies (army units are the best choice since military number plates give important advantages). Pak paid officials for their agreement to "adopt" the trucks. This is so common in the North that there is even an established rate of how much fake registration of a particular type of vehicle costs at which government agency.
Kim was a private owner of a gold mine. The gold mine was officially registered as a state enterprise. Technically, it was owned by a foreign trade company that in turn was managed by the financial department of the Party Central Committee. However, this was a legal fiction, pure and simple: Kim, once a mid-level police official, made some initial capital through bribes and smuggling, while his brother had made a minor fortune through selling counterfeit Western tobacco.
Then they used their money to grease the palms of bureaucrats, and they took over an old gold mine that had ceased operation in the 1980s. They restarted the small mine and hired workers, bought equipment and restarted operations. The gold dust was sold independently (and, strictly speaking, illegally) to Chinese traders.
The brothers agreed with the bureaucrats from the foreign trade company on how much money they should pay them roughly between 30-40% and the rest was used to run the business and enjoy life.
One step below we can see even humbler people like Ms Young, once an engineer at a state factory. In the mid-1990s, she began trading in second-hand Chinese dresses. By 2005 she was running a number of workshops that employed a few dozen women.
They made copies of Chinese garments using Chinese cloth, zippers and buttons. Some of the materials was smuggled across the border, while another part was purchased legally, mostly from a large market in the city of Raseon (a special economic zone which can be visited by Chinese merchants almost freely).
Interestingly, Ms Young technically remained an employee of a non-functioning state factory from which she was absent for months on end. She had to pay for the privilege of missing work and indoctrination sessions, deducting some $40 as her monthly "donation". This is an impressive sum if compared with her official salary of merely US$2.
The North Korean new rich might occasionally feel insecure. They might be afraid of the state, because pretty much everything they do is in breach of some article of the North Korean criminal code. A serious breach indeed - technically any of the above described persons could be sent to face an execution squad at the moment the authorities change their mind.
Indeed, such was the sorry fate of a significant number of first-generation North Korean businessmen, those who began to make money in the early 1990s, immediately after the collapse of the Juche (self-reliance)-style Stalinist economy. In 1994-1995, the execution of profiteers and embezzlers, occasionally conducted in public, was a part of a large campaign launched by the central government. The fear still lingers, but over the past 15 years such large-scale campaigns have never been conducted on a nationwide level. But for any business person, the risk is quite real.
However, it is difficult to say that they try to keep a low profile. On the contrary, nowadays one can see a lot of conspicuous consumption in North Korea, where the average official figure is misleading - virtually no North Korean family survives on the official wage alone.
The average monthly income is actually higher - thanks to the nearly universal involvement with the unofficial economy - and seems to be close to $15. Business people earn much more. People like Kim or Young usually make as much as a few thousand dollars a month, while smaller businesses (like a corner shop or tobacco workshop) bring in income measured in a few hundred dollars a month.
It is no surprise that the new rich enjoy consumption. Overseas travel is out of the question (it is permissible only for top business people related to the upper elite and/or the Kim Jong-il family), and domestic travel does not seem to be very popular. Nonetheless, the new rich frequent restaurants where a good meal will cost roughly as much as the average North Korean family makes in a couple of weeks.
They buy houses - technically the sale of real estate is illegal, but in the past two decades North Koreans have developed many techniques that allow the circumvention of these measures with ease. They buy all kinds of household appliances, flat-screen TVs, computers, large fridges, motor bikes. Even private cars have begun to appear, though in most cases successful businessmen prefer to register their used Toyotas and Hondas as the property of some state agency.
There are some peculiar problems that the North Korean new rich face. For example, even Pyongyang, let alone smaller cities, has a very unreliable supply of electricity. Large batteries and small power generators are of help, but only to a certain extent. Batteries are enough to run a TV or a DVD player, but power-hungry air-conditioners and fridges need a constant supply of electricity that is not readily available.
Surprisingly, many people in the countryside still buy fridges, even though the contraptions are unusable most of the time. I have frequently come across North Koreans who have boasted of the fridge they own, only to admit that they do not have electricity to switch it on.
To my perplexed question of why they spent so much money on such a useless device, my interlocutors would usually reply that a fridge was an important and even useful status symbol. An affluent household nowadays is expected to own a fridge, even if it is used as a bookshelf (as was the case with one of my North Korean acquaintances).
In some cases, fridges are on all the time - like the air-conditioners which are seldom bought for prestige purposes alone. At first glance, a small power generator appears to be the solution, but this is not really the case. Such generators are easy come by in the North, but they are not reliable, consume a lot of expensive fuel and - last, but not least - are very noisy. So, even though many rich North Korean families have such machines, these devices are usually only used on special occasions.
Surprisingly, more common is the seemingly exotic practice of electricity theft. A North Korean of wealthy means makes a deal with a local military commander or manager of the local power grid, then an illegal power cable connects the entrepreneur's house with a power grid sub-station or military base (military installations are usually supplied with electricity even when the common customers are switched off).
I know of a rich neighborhood in a relatively affluent borderland North Korean city where half a dozen households made an illegal deal with a manager of the power grid. Each family pays the equivalent of $7 and has round the clock access to an unlimited electricity supply. All these houses boast air-conditioners, a supreme luxury in the countryside.
What will happen to these people? What is their role in the future of North Korea? Ostensibly, there seem to be reasons to be optimistic. The rising merchant classes in Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries eventually destroyed feudal monarchies. So why shouldn't we expect a similar fate for the Kim regime, which has a surprising amount in common with the states of pre-modern Europe?
This indeed might happen: the growth of the private economy is slowly eroding the authority and control of the government and concurrently is bringing dangerous ideas to North Koreans. Business people themselves see the state and its officials as a swarm of parasites (frankly, this feeling seems to be mutual).
However, there is an interesting twist. If a North Korean revolution comes, it is likely to be followed by unification with (or rather absorption by) the South: the allure of the rich and free South is seemingly irresistible. However, if this were to happen, the future of North Korean nascent businesses would not be rosy. It is telling that in the countries of the former communist bloc, surprisingly few bosses of communist-era black market businesses managed to adjust to the new, "regular" capitalist environment.
In North Korea, their peers are likely to fare even worse, since they will have to compete with the capital and expertise of South Korean businesses.
Paradoxically, the long-term interests of the emerging North Korean business class might coincide with that of the Kim regime. Unlike normal people in the North, both groups - officials and entrepreneurs - have an interest in maintaining a separate North Korean state. Unification with the South is bound to spell disaster for both groups.
A person who is now running a couple of small shops might eventually, if North Korean capitalism continues uninterrupted growth, become an owner of a supermarket chain. If unification comes, he or she would be lucky to survive the competition with the South Korean retail giants and keep the few corner shops they had.
However, the alliance between the regime and the newly emerged North Korean entrepreneurial class does not seem likely: neither corrupt officials nor greedy black market operators are that far-sighted. This is probably very good news for the vast majority of North Koreans who are likely to benefit much from the collapse of the regime and possible unification with the South.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/MH10Dg02.html
From yesterday's Hankyoreh:
Tenants forcibly evicted from Myeong-dong and Poi-dong
Forcible evictions remain ongoing under the Lee administration, as redevelopment projects continue to trump tenant rights
“I do not think these methods are right. Something unacceptable has happened.”
In a telephone interview Friday with the Hankyoreh, Bae Jae-hun, head of the tenant countermeasures committee for Zone 3 in Seoul's Myeong-dong neighborhood, said he had returned to the hospital that morning due to pain in his face and various areas of his body after being beaten by hired security personnel.
Bae, who has been holding a sit-in protest at Cafe Mari in the redevelopment area in Seoul’s Jung (Central) District demanding that measures be taken for relocation, was hospitalized Wednesday after attempting to fend off around one hundred hired security employees who came at him suddenly that morning. The employees dragged out tenants, along with university student and citizen sympathizers, and occupied the cafe before withdrawing Thursday night.
“There is clearly a law against this,” sighed Bae. “How are the security workers able to use these kinds of violent tactics?”
Friday morning saw a press conference in front of the cafe to denounce the rough tactics of the security workers(*). Around twenty people took part, including not only Myeong-dong tenants but also Cho Cheol-sun, head of the joint Poi-dong reconstruction village residence restoration countermeasures committee, as well as Korean Tutors’ and Education Laborers’ Union Secretary General Yu Deuk-gyu.
Residents of the Poi-dong reconstruction village, a Gangnam shanty town that was half destroyed in a fire, also clashed with around 50 hired security workers who had arrived at the village early Wednesday morning to tear it down. The Korean Tutors’ and Education Laborers’ Union, which had been holding a protest in the area of Seoul Plaza demanding that JEI reinstate fired workers and stop its union suppression efforts, saw its protest site forcibly demolished Monday by Jung-gu District Office and a security employee agency.
At the press conference, the participants said that tenants in Myeong-dong's Zone 3, Poi-dong residents, and education workers would continue fighting in spite of “attempts to keep us quiet with violence.”
“We denounce the contracted personnel’s violence that is being indiscriminately perpetrated, and the government that stands by and allows it to happen,” they added.
In response to this, an official with the Zone 3 developer said, “There was some clashing in the process of trying to uphold property rights, and the conflict crew because there were a lot of people from outside along with the tenants.”
The official added that the company plans to guarantee the tenants’ ability to protest until August 16, when a final trial is scheduled for the eviction suit.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/490676.html
* "security workers"(^^):
In fact organized gangsters, hired by the Daewoo Construction(MAFIA), aka the "Myeong-dong Zone 3 developer"
PS: Between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening the "security workers" (backed by the cops) injured at least 22 activists who are (still) resisting the so-called "redevelopment" project in Myeong-dong!!
Latest news: Comrades involved in the 'frontline struggle' told me few hours ago "Wir haben gewonnen. Mari wird uns widergehört. Das Kraft von twitter ist ganz machtvoll. Durch 2 tage solidaritieren viele Menschen. Aber einige Leute verletzen sich... Und unsere Instrumente sind zerbrochen..." -- i.e. the Myeong-dong Resistance Collective has been able - after two days of fierce fights with scores of organized gangsters(hired by Daewoo Construction MAFIA), finally backed by the police - to retake "Cafe Mari", the epicenter of the Myeong-dong anti-'redevelopment' resistance movement!!!
Here some impressions from last night (organized gangsters, hired by Daewoo Construction(MAFIA), their makeshift weapons and what they left over after their violent occupation of "Cafe Mari"...):
PS: Until last night at least 12 activists (supporting the anti-'redevelopment' struggle in Myeong-dong) were injured during clashes with the gangsters hired by Daewoo Construction MAFIA!!
Since y'day afternoon Daewoo's construction MAFIA is escalating the situation in Myeong-dong's "redevelopment" area by sending up to 200 organized thugs/gangsters to terrorize the Myeong-dong Resistance Collective and all of their supporters.
Activists related to the resistance in Myeong-dong published the following outcry in the late afternoon:
3rd of August, 2011
Myung_dong_Cafe Mari, City Center of Seoul.
Gangsters beat tenants 4:30 am -till now
11 Poor tenants were evicted by Daewoo Cooperations and IBK(Industrial Bank of Korea) on2nd of April.
Those big cooperations are planning 'Financial Street' on that area.
Since 4th of June, the tenants have been squatting a place called cafe Mari( a cafe owned by one of the tenants)
Many students and citizens and artists are banded together with the tenants.
Since 4th of June gangsters tried to beat people or destroyed the building but it wasn't easy because many people back up for the tenants.
But today IBK and Daewoo hired 200 gangsters to beat people.
They destroyed Mari cafe and sitting in the cafe since 4:30 am.
We reported to police but they didn't come.
This is a reality of South Korea.
And today in the early morning an eyewitness of the GANG TERROR noticed the following: "It's 7 am and I just got back from Mari in Myeongdong. Insane. Around 50 young hired gangsters going through and hitting protestors: women, the elderly, college students, whoever. One of them kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach tonight."
A lot of more pics, witnessing the GANG TERROR in Myeong-dong, organized by the DAEWOO construction MAFIA you can see here!
Related (Korean) reports:
☞ 소화기 뿌리며 각목 휘둘러…여성 2명 ‘호흡곤란’ (Hankyoreh, 8.04)
☞ "다 부쉈다. 새벽에 들이닥쳐 사람을 짐짝처럼 끌어냈다" (Pressian, 8.03)
☞ 명동3구역, 위험천만 재개발 철거 계속 (OMN, 8.03)
☞ 명동 3구역 기습 철거, 용역 철거민에게 폭력 행사 (VoP, 8.03)
Under the heading "Estimated 15,000 turn out for third Hope Bus Campaign" yesterday's Hankyoreh reported that "Police initiated a blockade on bridges and sidewalks and allowed conservative activists to attack and detain city busses carrying participants"...
Yesterday's Kyunghyang Shinmun reported likewise that "Some 300 members of far-right groups caused disturbance by occupying the Yeongdo Bridge. They pulled passengers off the buses and assaulted them. They swore at them, saying the 'forces trying to overthrow the nation should be arrested under current law' and 'the commies must be knocked down'..."
And some kind of evidence, published in Sunday's Nodong-ui Sori you'll find out (MUST SEE!!) here!!
Here just some impressions from last Thursday's first(?) SOLIDARITY CONCERT(to support the 3rd "Hope Bus" campaign) in CAFE MARI, the current 'epicenter' of the Myeong-dong Sit-in Struggle Collective(resisting the planned so-called 'redevelopment' project in downtown Seoul):
Some more pics you can see here!!
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