Korean unionist self-immolates outside court on May Day

Posted on : 2023-05-01 16:28 KST Modified on : 2023-05-01 16:28 KST
The construction unionist had been under investigation by prosecutors
Members of the Korean Construction Workers’ Union hold up signs condemning police raids of their fellow union members outside their Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province office in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, on April 24. (Yonhap)
Members of the Korean Construction Workers’ Union hold up signs condemning police raids of their fellow union members outside their Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province office in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, on April 24. (Yonhap)

The Korean Construction Workers’ Union reported on Monday that the leader of a local union branch had self-immolated outside of a local court in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, that morning.

According to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions-associated union, the unionist was rushed to the Gangneung Asan Hospital immediately after setting himself on fire outside of the Gangneung branch of the Chuncheon District Court, but had been in a state of cardiac arrest and had suffered full-body burns.

The union revealed that the local branch leader had been under investigation by prosecutors for suspicions of forced hiring, and that he was due for a warrant review hearing at 3 pm that afternoon.

The unionist, surnamed Yang, had posted to a social networking service shared by construction union officials Monday morning, according to his union.

Writing that he planned to self-immolate that day, Yang said he had chosen to do so because he had “carried out union work justly and without wrongdoing,” but that prosecutors were charging him with “not a violation of the Assembly and Demonstration Act, but ‘interference and intimidation.’”

“My pride cannot abide this,” Yang wrote about the charges against him.

“I should have fought doggedly, struggled tenaciously to win. Perhaps I’m taking the easy way out,” the unionist wrote.

“I was glad to have been in this together with you,” Yang wrote. “I will stand at the side of my comrades eternally.”

By Jang Hyeon-eun, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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