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Since several years I'm reporting about the terror committed by organized gangsters (so-called "security personnel") hired by the S. Korean capitalists (construction companies, industrial trusts/'Chaebol', e.g. Daewoo Construction, SsangYong, Hanjin etc...) against activists who were/are resisting eviction orders(e.g. tenants in Ilsan Pung-dong, Seoul Samgak/Suha-dong, Myeong-dong/street vendors in Seoul's Cheonggyecheon area...), striking workers - e.g in Pyeongtaek(SsangYong), Busan(Hanjin), protesting 'disabled' people...

The following editorial in today's Kyunghyang Shinmun is dealing with this subject:

Can 'Hired Muscle Violence' Be Left to Become an Everyday Occurrence?

Violence committed by "errand men" belonging to security companies has reached high levels.

On August 1, the makeshift camp of the "Hunger Strike Team of Hope," which had been conducting a hunger strike protest in front of the Deoksugung Palace, was forcibly demolished by employees of Junggu Ward and a "hired muscle company."
 

Two days later, errand men were dispatched to the site of a sit-in protest at "Cafe Mari" in Seoul's Myeong-dong District 3, which is due to be demolished.
 

On August 12, employees of a hired muscle company commissioned by Gangnam Ward made a surprise attack on "Poi-dong Demolition Village" and demolished the temporary buildings in which citizens who had lost their homes to fire two months ago were living.
 

In each case, several citizens and errand men were injured. Violence by errand men is becoming part of the system and of everyday life to the extent that some are calling Korea the "republic of hired muscle."
 

Hired muscle companies are permitted to operate under the current Korean law on security companies. The problem is their illegal violence.
 

Errand men are deployed as problem solvers to places where conflicts of interest occur between individuals, where they overtly commit acts of violence.
 

More serious is the fact that their scope of activity is widening and the number of hired muscle companies is increasing in number.
 

They are deployed everywhere, from redevelopment sites to strikes, rallies and even demonstrations. The situation is such that even government offices are using them.
 

Such thriving business means that the number of security companies registered with the police increased from 2,671 in 2006 to 3,270 in 2009, and stood at 3,544 as of July 2011.

Competition among hired muscle companies is exacerbating their violence, too. Because profits from redevelopment increase with swift demolition, companies that use stronger violence receive more work.
 

A pattern where big security and hired muscle companies subcontract work out to small ones, while these in turn employ temporary workers, is becoming generalized.
 

The deployment of temporary errand men with no accident insurance to conflict spots occurs frequently. In May, four illegally employed 17-year-old minors were dispatched to the site of a sit-in protest by Yoosung Enterprise Co., Ltd.'s labor union.
 

Failure by the police to intervene also plays a role in promoting violence. Not only do they regard the deployment of errand men as the legitimate exercising of authority; they effectively do nothing about violence because it is hard to predict the errand men's illegal acts before they occur.
 

Violence by errand men cannot be allowed to continue this way. A state where private violence runs rampant is not a constitutional one. Violence by errand men is dangerous not only to their victims, but to the errand men themselves.
 

The fundamental solution is to remove the need for hired muscle. If this is not immediately possible, violence must be prevented through the tightening of regulations regarding hired muscle.

Work by those with criminal convictions or by minors for hired muscle companies must be punished yet more severely, and only registered errand men must be deployed on jobs. Security companies that break the law must be eliminated.
 

Some take the view that the recent increase in violence by errand men is linked to next year's general and presidential elections. In other words, contractors are hurrying to get building work done in a situation where they do not know what will become of current new town policies after the elections.
 

Measures must be taken before a bigger accident occurs.

http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201108181555037&code=790101