Why is the Korean government giving subsidies to violent pro-North Korean labor unions in the first place?:
President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Monday of “firm action” against labor unions that refuse to disclose their account books while receiving large amounts of government subsidies, his office said.
Yoon’s warning came during a weekly meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as they discussed ways to increase labor unions’ accounting transparency and regulatory reforms, according to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.
“The president stressed once again that the starting point for labor union reform is transparency of labor union accounting,” Lee said during a press briefing.
“There is no choice but to take firm action against behavior that uses hundreds of billions of won from taxpayers’ precious money in government subsidies, but denies the rule of law and refuses to disclose the details of their use,” Yoon was quoted as saying.
The hundreds of billions of won was an apparent reference to People Power Party Rep. Kweon Seong-dong’s recent claim that the country’s two largest umbrella unions — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — received 152.1 billion won (US$117.4 million) in subsidies from the labor ministry and regional governments between 2018 and 2022.
Meanwhile, only 120 out of 327 labor unions and groups with 1,000 or more members complied with the government’s request for accounting records from Feb. 1-15, according to the labor ministry.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the Yoon administration says they will cut off all funding if these unions do not open their books for inspection. They are probably all furiously cooking their books now to try and cover up irregularities before any inspection.
