▲ The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union(KTU) President Byun Sung-ho(left) watches the circumstantial evidences in the memoirs left by late former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Kim Young-han during the press briefing held on December 5 at the KTU head office that reveal the alleged involvement of the presidential office in the governmental suppression upon the KTU.(Jeong Ki-hoon)

The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) issued a correction notification to the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union(KTU) to revoke the union membership for nine dismissed teachers in 2013. When the KTU rejected the MOEL's correction order, the MOEL outlawed the KTU in October 2013. Article 2 of the Teachers Trade Union Act prohibits dismissed teachers from joining the trade unions and Article 3 bans political activities of teachers' trade unions. When teachers were dismissed due to their involvement in political activities and dismissed teachers were not allowed to retain union membership.

The KTU filed a legal suit with the Seoul Administrative Court which however endorsed the government decision on June 19, 2014. The KTU appealed the case to the Seoul High Court, which asked the Constitutional Court for the constitutionality of Article 2. In May 2015, the Constitutional Court affirmed the constitutionality of Article 2, which is not in favor of the KTU's position.

The KTU suspects that the decision of the Seoul Administrative Court outlawing the KTU in 2014 as an outcome of a 'long process' meticulously planned by the presidential office. The KTU unveiled the circumstantial evidences found in the hand-written memoirs of late former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs in the Park Geun-hye government that the KTU obtained with the approval of the bereaved family.

According to the memoirs, President Park Geun-hye's chief of staff Kim Ki-choon at the time mentioned 42 times regarding the KTU in the meetings for senior presidential secretaries for the period of five months from June 15 to December 1, 2014. In the meeting on June 19, 2014, the memoirs reveal that former presidential chief of staff Kim K-choon instructed the strong enforcement of follow-ups by the secretaries and ministries against KTU when the court decision outlaws the KTU.

reported by Yang Woo-ram
translated by Kim Sung-jin

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