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UNI Global Union is urging the newly-elected President of Korea, Moon Jae-In to take immediate action to see that KCTU President Han Sang-gyun is set free.

Korea’s Supreme Court has today reconfirmed a decision by the Court of the Appeal that Bro Han should serve a three-year jail term and pay a fine of 500,000 KRW. Bro Han has already been in prison for 18 months.

UNI along with the ITUC has been vociferous in calling for Bro Han’s release.

UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings said, “President Moon has made it clear that he wants to build a ‘nation that respects labour’. We urge him to show his commitment to workers’ rights by prioritizing Bro Han’s release.”

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow met with President Moon earlier in the week and he confirmed his intention to look into Bro Han’s case once the Supreme Court had made his decision.

Jennings added, “Now that the Supreme Court has handed down its decision, President Moon is in a position to act and we join with the ITUC in calling on him to do so immediately. Korea will be one of the subject’s which will be raised during next week’s ILO Conference in Geneva and President Moon has an opportunity to show the ILO that Korea does in fact now ‘respect labour’.”

During Burrow’s meeting with President Moon, the Korean leader also reiterated his plans for Korea to ratify ILO Conventions 87 on freedom of association and 98 on collective bargaining, and these, along with his commitment to raise the minimum wage to ensure dignified lives for Korean workers, will lay the foundations for respect for the workers on which the national economy depends.

ITUC GS Burrow visited Bro Han in prison and brought him messages of support and solidarity from the international labour movement, including UNI. UNI GS Philip Jennings visited Bro Han last year and UNI has honoured him with the Freedom from Fear Award

In a message from the prison where he has been held since 2015 for organising public demonstrations, KCTU President Han made a reference to the former President of Korea, Park Geun-hye who is facing serious corruption charges.  Bro. Han said, “At the end of the candlelight revolution, both the leader of the union and the corrupt president are in jail, but while one is embittered, the other is full of hope for a new era of rights, just wages, corporate reform and decent work for the Korean people. I am motivated to bring justice at home in Korea, but also to extend solidarity to the struggles of others in the international family of the ITUC.”