Police launched a search for South Korean union leaders yesterday as workers at state companies defied government warnings and joined tens of thousands of strikers in a general stoppage.
On the second day of the strike, cracks appeared in the unions' united front against redundancies caused by economic reforms, with a banking union group cancelling plans to join the stoppage.
"We decided last night not to strike since we are still holding talks with the government. But we are ready to go on strike anytime if nothing can be agreed with the government," a spokesman for the group said. The protest move against the government's forced merger of five banks with stronger institutions would have left almost 10,000 people jobless.
Police said they had been granted warrants for the arrest of Mr Dan Byung-Ho of the Federation of Metal Workers Unions (FMWU), and for the Hyundai Motor Co. union leader Mr Kim Kwang-Shik and two of his colleagues. Mr Dan faces charges of obstructing business by leading the strikes called by the FMWU, which covers some of the country's principal foreign currency-earning industries.
About 55,000 metal and car workers downed tools on Tuesday for an indefinite stoppage. The KCTU and KFTU called the nationwide strike after walking out of meetings with management and government on finding ways to ease the pain of the corporate reform.
Communist North Korea said it backed the strikes, calling their tactic the "best choice".
South Korea yesterday demanded an apology from North Korea for recent infiltrations of suspected spies and a promise that such incidents would not happen again. The National Security Council, following a morning meeting chaired by President Kim Dae-jung, said it also wanted those involved in the incursions to be punished.
The body of a suspected North Korean spy was washed up on a beach in the South last weekend, and a North Korean mini-submarine was captured three weeks ago.