Third periodic report
dated 27 September 1995 and fourth periodic report dated 30 March
1998
The Republic of Korea (ROK) is a mountainous country with
a population of 45.6 million. Korean society is highly homogenous;
non-Koreans only constitute 0.1 percent of the population. The
country is approximately twenty seven percent Buddhist, 18.6
percent Protestant, and 5.7 percent Catholic. The legacy of
Confucianism prevails as a cultural influence.
Rapid industrialization since the 1960s has turned Korea into
a highly urbanized and industrialized country. Until the 1997
economic crisis, Korea had been hailed as an example of economic
success under conservative political rule. However, significant
disparities persist between conditions in urban and rural areas,
particularly in respect to quality of social services and medical
care. Medical facilities and staffing remain inadequate in rural
areas.
The recent presidential victory of veteran democracy-campaigner
Kim Dae Jung is a good omen for human rights and democracy in
ROK. However, the current economic crisis provides both opportunity
and excuse for limitations on citizens' rights; the future of
Korea in this climate is uncertain.
Government and Politics
Having won the ROK's presidential election in December 1997
on his fourth attempt, Kim Dae Jung of the National Congress
for New Politics party (NCNP) took office on 25 February 1998.
It is the first time that an opposition politician has taken
the presidency from the business and military elite that had
ruled Korea under various party names since the Korean War (1950-1953).
The 74-year-old president has pledged to carry out three major
tasks: restructure the ravaged economy, reform the scandal-rocked
political institutions and pursue reconciliation with the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.1
Though seasoned in politics, the new president has significant
challenges to meet. First of all, the opposition party - the
Grand National Party (GNP) - holds 161 seats in the 299-member
National Assembly.2 GNP
is the new name of the former ruling party, the Korean National
Party (KNP). The nature of this coalition will create difficulty
for Kim Dae Jung in the National Assembly. On the day of the
inauguration, the GNP-controlled National Assembly boycotted
a vote on the new president's nominee for prime minister, Kim
Jong Pil, and Kim Dae Jung had to begin his presidency without
a cabinet.
Another limitation on the new president's ability to move
his own program is the role of the conservative political veteran
Kim Jong Pil. Kim Jong Pil heads the United Liberal Democrats.
His support was crucial for Kim Dae Jung's presidential victory.
Though Kim Dae Jung is personally popular among the Korean masses,
he had been an outsider to the power network of the country's
elite. His major opponent, Lee Hoi Chang, was picked by former
President Kim Young Sam as his successor. Though Lee was no
politician and lacked a mass following, his prospects suddenly
improved when he received the support of the former Mayor of
Seoul, Cho Soon, who dropped his own bid for the presidency.
In this context, Kim Dae Jung could not have won the presidency
without allying with Kim Jong Pil who was also running for presidency.
Kim Jong Pil was the founder of the Korean Central Intelligence
Agency that was responsible for brutal repression of the people
for more than two decades.
In March 1998, President Kim Dae Jung approved the most sweeping
amnesty in the history of his country, clearing the police and
personnel records of 5.5 million people and freeing scores of
political prisoners.3 The
vast majority of those benefiting from the amnesty are ordinary
Koreans who will have speeding tickets and other traffic violations
cleared from their records, or civil servants who will have
records of demotions removed from their personnel files. All
political prisoners over the age of seventy were freed. Human
rights advocates say the release of political prisoners did
not go far enough because they had expected more than five hundred
to be freed.4 Some say the
President's action was constrained by the need to avoid antagonizing
conservative forces.5
Relations with Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Constraints
on Human Rights
Peace with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (hereafter
referred to as DPRK) is one of the priorities on the new president's
agenda. Kim has expressed greater sympathy than his predecessor,
Kim Young Sam, for the DPRK's situation.6
In his inaugural address, he appealed to end decades of division
on the Korean Peninsula.7
He also suggested that he would not oppose cooperation between
DPRK and the United States or Japan.8
In a new round of peace talks held in Geneva among the U.S.,
China, DPRK, and ROK in March 1998, however, no substantial
progress was made. The first direct talks in four years between
DPRK and ROK also stalled in April 1998 due to the DPRK's insistence
that it receive aid before discussing the reunion of divided
families.9
The tension with DPRK has led ROK to impose strict laws against
any conduct that could be considered sympathetic to Pyongyang.
Such laws infringe upon civil liberties, particularly free expression.
ROK Koreans can be jailed for listening to DPRK Korean radio
broadcasts or visiting the North without government approval.10
Some were even convicted for burning incense to mourn the death
of President Kim II Sung of DPRK in 1994.11
Suh Joon Sik, a long-time human rights activist, is facing criminal
trial for showing a movie at a human rights film festival last
fall.12 The movie was
said to be pro-communist because it tells the story of a 1948
massacre of tens of thousands of suspected communist sympathizers
on a ROK island.
Economic Crisis and Labor Movement
It is too early to understand all the reasons behind the recent
economic crisis in ROK and other Asian countries, but consensus
seems to be that corruption, cronyism and backroom dealing between
government and business have contributed to the eruption of
the crisis in Korea. The election of Kim Dae Jung, who was once
an advocate of the labor and the poor, also indicates the dissatisfaction
among Korean people with the elite KNP (now under the new name
GNP) whose policies resulted in the disaster. In April 1998,
Korean prosecutors said that they would investigate whether
dereliction of duty by the former Finance Minister, Kang Kyung
Shik, and the former chief presidential economic secretary,
Kim In Ho, had played a role in the country's financial crisis.13
Another factor that played a role in the crisis was the escalating
labor conflicts that took a heavy toll on the economy. In December
1996, the National Assembly met in secret for ten minutes at
six o'clock in the morning and railroaded an anti-labor law
when no opposition members were present. Had the law come into
effect, employers would have been allowed to replace workers
on a temporary basis and subcontract work during a strike; striking
workers would no longer be paid; working hours could have been
extended to fifty-six hours per week; multiple unions would
have been banned until the year 2000. The proposed legislation
triggered month-long massive strikes costing the economy US
$3.2 billion, according to official figures.14
The government backed down and Parliament passed a revised law
in March 1997, which dropped the ban on multiple unions and
barred mass layoffs for two years.
However, labor peace did not last long. In 1998, the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions called for another massive strike
in protest of new labor reform bills pending in the National
Assembly that would make layoffs easier.15
The law was introduced because the IMF's US $58 billion bailout
required firms to be "more flexible" in firing workers.16
In February 1998, trade unions and the government entered an
agreement that would end lifetime employment to help promote
industrial restructuring.17
Consequently, the Labor Minister estimates that 10,000 have
been losing their jobs daily.18
Women are the first to be fired, and an increasing number of
women are forced to work part-time for less pay. The unemployment
rate increased to 5.9 percent in February 1998 and will very
likely remain at this level in the next three years19
Women in Export Processing Zones
Korea's economy took off in the 1960s by attracting Japanese
and Western investors with its inexpensive labor. Export processing
zones were established for foreign capital to set up factories
to produce goods for export. Through the end of the 1970s, light
industries produced most of ROK's exports. Female workers comprised
more than half the work force in these industries: 55.2 percent
in electronics, 72.4 percent in textiles and 53.4 percent in
rubber footwear.20 The
government kept asking workers, including women, to sacrifice
and promised to reward them when the economy develops.21
Many young Korean women toiled in foreign-invested factories
for long hours at a meager salary. At the same time, within
one generation's time, the country was transformed from a poor
rural economy to a highly industrialized one.
In the past decade, Korea has restructured the economy, relocating
some production lines to countries with even cheaper labor or
upgrading labor-intensive industries to high-tech capital-intensive
production. The industrial restructuring has disproportionately
affected women's employment opportunities. Between 1987 and
1992, employment in the garment industry dropped by 31.8 percent.
In the shoe industry, employment dropped by 26.2 percent between
1991 and 1992.22 Both
industries primarily hired women. In the electronics industry,
the number of women workers decreased three times as fast as
that of men.23 Consequently,
more and more women have had to seek work from sub-contracting
agencies. These subcontracting workers suffer lower pay, irregular
hours and enjoy no benefits. There is little protection for
their rights.
PREVIOUS REVIEW BY CEDAW:
Comment on the Second Periodic Report of the Republic of Korea
by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women (1993).
Suggestions and recommendations:
