KOREA (SOUTH)
Military Exports from Canada (1990-1999)
Year
Military Value
of
Equipment
Military
Types
Exports
1999
3,5,6,9,10, 11,17
3,762,151
1998
3,5,9,10,11,14 4,719,275
1997
4,5,6,9,10,11,13,15
6,729,465
1996
5,6,9,10,11,13,15
4,599,463
1995
9,10,11,13,15
12,231,106
1994
5,10,11,13,14
12,848,470
1993
5,10,11 4,266,568
1992
5,6,10,11,13
6,393,879
1991
1,5,6,11,13
22,667,949
1990
5,6,10,11,13
11,916,129
Total $132,613,286
Sources: Export of Military Goods from
Canada, Annual Reports 1990-1999. Published by the Export Controls Division,
Export and Import Controls Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, Government of Canada. Web site: <http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/~eicb/>
-----------------------------------
Examples of Canadian Military Exports (1990s)
BAE Systems Canada Ltd.
• Military
radios (subcontract)
$11
million (1999)
Bombardier Inc.
• Challenger
604 for maritime patrol
$25
million (1999)
Ploughshares Monitor, Sept 2000
CAE Electronics Ltd.
• Navy
minelayer management system
Value
unknown (Jan.1996-Jun.1997)
Ploughshares Monitor, Sept. 1997
Canadian Marconi Co.
• Tactical
military radio (subcontract)
$11
million (1999)
Pratt & Whitney Canada Inc.
• 120
PT6A engines for aircraft
$120
million (1998)
Ploughshares Monitor, June 1999
Raytheon Canada Ltd.
• Missile-2
electronics (subcontract)
Value
unknown (1999)
Ploughshares Monitor, Sept 2000
Spar Aerospace Ltd.
• 50
TigerEye thermal observation devices
$10
million (1990)
Ploughshares Monitor, Sept. 1996
-----------------------------------
Canadian Government Promotes Military Exports
The Department of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade (DFAIT) reported: "Korea is Canada's third largest overseas defence
market, with annual sales of $100 million."
This contradicts the data published in
DFAIT's annual reports on Canada's military exports, which admit only to $132
million between 1990 and 1999.
Source: "Focus on... Team Canada,"
Canadaexport On-Line, Oct.25, 1996. <http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/english/news/newsletr/canex/961025ce.htm>
---
Military Trade Shows
The Seoul Air Show (SAS) and the
International Maritime and Defense Exhibition were promoted by Industry Canada
<strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/dd74952e.
html> Canadian Exhibitors at SAS
in 1998, included:
* Bell
* Bombardier
Aerospace
* Canadian
Embassy
* Canadian
Marconi
* Pratt
& Whitney Canada
Source: <http://www.seoulairshow.com/>
---
PACEX 2000
Two Canadian warships (Algonquin and
Winnipeg) visited Japan, Korea and China (April 28-May 18, 2000). Industry
Canada said this provided "marketing opportunities there and within the
rest of the region." Canadian companies displayed their military equipment
onboard. This floating arms bazaar was
organized by International and Industry Programs, of the Department of National
Defence
Source: <http://napoleon.ic.gc.ca/aerospace/nst.nsf/vDLbyTopic-E?Openview&Expandview>
---
Military Opportunities
"Exporters are encouraged to keep
apprised of key tender opportunities in Korea through the Defence Procurement
Agency, Ministry of National Defence. The
government released tender bidding notices acknowledging demand for
[maintenance, repair, overhaul] technologies, jet/trainer attack aircraft parts
and support, a capable tanker/transport/AWACS aircraft and heavy
ASW/SAR/transport helicopters.... Canadian companies are poised to take
advantage of the opportunities."
Source: "Aerospace Market in
Korea," April, 1999. By Team
Canada Market Research Centre and Cdn. Trade Commissioner Service, DFAIT.<http://www.infoexport.gc.ca/docs/47237-e.pdf>
-----------------------------------
Human Rights Violations (1999)
The human cost of the economic crisis and
conditions laid down by the International Monetary Fund generated tensions and
conflict between business, labour and government. There was no progress in forming a National Human Rights
Commission.
National Security Law
The UN Human Rights Committee expressed
concern about the National Security Law (NSL), called for the abolition of the
“law-abidance oath” imposed as a precondition of release on some arrested under
the NSL, and expressed deep concern about “the laws and practices that
encourage discriminatory attitudes towards women.” At year’s end, there were reportedly 111 political prisoners.
Security Surveillance Law
Human rights groups estimated that hundreds
of former political prisoners were subject to police surveillance and required
to regularly report their activities to police. They also face arbitrary restrictions on their activities. They cannot meet other former prisoners or
participate in certain meetings and demonstrations. Police often make regular phone calls to check on their
whereabouts and ask neighbours and colleagues to report on their activities.
Prison and ill-treatment
Conditions in prisons and detention centres
continued to be harsh and ill-treatment of prisoners was reported. Prison cells were unheated in winter,
leading to many cases of frost-bite, and lacked ventilation in summer. Medical facilities in prisons and detention
centres were poor. Political prisoners
were often in solitary confinement.
Women
suffered discrimination in prisons.
There appeared to be no special provision for women’s health needs and
no separate cells or dietary provisions for pregnant women or those who had
recently given birth.
For
breaking prison rules, prisoners were reportedly held in handcuffs and chains
while in solitary confinement for long periods, denied adequate food, beaten,
held in small disciplinary cells with no natural light or deprived of sleep and
forced to sit in the same position for prolonged periods.
Source: Amnesty International Report 2000.
<http://www.amnesty-usa.org/ailib/>
-----------------------------------
Labour Rights Violations (1999)
Corporate restructuring through mass lay-offs
continued, unemployment doubled and strikes were repressed. Conditions of a massive IMF loan in 1997
included labour market “flexibility” measures.
Thousands lost jobs without receiving redundancy payments and with
little or no social security.
Tripartite Commission
(TC)
In 1998, a TC was established to deal with
economic and labour reforms. Agreement was
reached to facilitate lay-offs and redress long-standing union rights
violations. The National Assembly
adopted a law allowing mass dismissals.
A law allowed public servants to form workplace councils, except for
public prosecutors, teachers, fire fighters and police. The councils cannot bargain collectively or
strike. The KCTU rejected the law on
mass lay-offs, campaigned for its repeal and to prosecute employers perpetrating
illegal mass dismissals. They demanded
employment security, unemployment relief, reform of large state corporations
and a review of IMF conditions.
Teachers’ union legalised
In January, a bill legalised two teachers’
unions as of July, but political activities and school-level unions were not
permitted. Many matters were excluded
from collective bargaining and strikes were banned.
Repression of strike action
In January, the Korea Metal Workers
Federation (KMWF) president was sentenced to two years in prison for inciting a
strike. A KCTU leader was released from
prison after being sentenced to 18 months in 1998. There were large-scale arrests of KCTU leaders in April and
May. The KCTU said unless the
government changed policies on corporate restructuring through massive layoffs,
they would strike and hold nation-wide rallies. Authorities said this was illegal. The strike was called off due to detentions, arrest threats,
prosecutions and demands for compensation from employers.
The
state-owned Seoul Subway fired 43 union leaders and threatened to fire another
39. Seoul City Council and the Subway
launched damage suits against 259 unionists.
The government issued arrest warrants for 66 union leaders. The Subway Union announced a strike to protest
firings of 86 unionists and demanded employers drop legal action against
strikers.
The
KMWF and hospital workers launched strikes in May. Arrests continued after a mass rally. When riot police charged, workers lay down and 48 were detained. The president of a health workers’ union was
arrested and ten other union leaders were charged.
In
May, two union leaders at Hyundai Motors were sentenced to 1.5 and 2 years in
prison. They were pardoned and released
in December.
In
June, the KMFW started a strike to protest layoffs, the KCTU held a general
strike and the FKTU held a strike against unilateral restructuring. By July, 23 members of the KMWF were
arrested and warrants were issued for five unionists and president of the
Daewoo Shipbuilding Workers’ Union.
In
October, Korean Federation of Bank & Financial Unions said it would sue the
IMF for damages to workers who lost jobs due to restructuring.
Unions demand changes in law
In December, the FKTU and KCTU demanded a
shorter working week and changes to labour law. The FKTU president began a sit-in at ruling party offices. 20 KCTU members were arrested for a sit-in at
parliament. Thousands of KCTU members
rallied and violent clashes took place after police blocked their march.
Source: Annual Survey of Violations of Trade
Union Rights (2000), International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
-----------------------------------
Child Labour Violations
* 411,000
aged 15-19 are working. (ILO, Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1999)
Prostitution and Trafficking
*
The country is a major transit point for alien smugglers, including traffickers
of Asian women and children destined for the sex trade and domestic
servitude. Relatively small numbers of
Korean economic migrants are believed to end up as victims of traffickers as
well. (U.S. Dept. of State, Human Rights Report, 1999)
* In
March, a Korean man was arrested on charges of forcing 40 Korean women,
recruited as waitresses, into prostitution in Macau. (U.S. Dept. of State,
Human Rights Report, 1999)
* Around
the U.S. military bases, there are 18,000 registered and 9,000 unregistered
prostitutes. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the
Asia Pacific, 1996)
Source: <http://www.globalmarch.org/worstformsreport/world/korea-rep.html>
-----------------------------------
TAKE ACTION!
International Action Center (IAC)
The IAC is organizing a “People’s
Investigation of U.S. War Crimes Against Korea” on June 23, 2001, in New York
City. There is evidence of more than 160
instances of US-led military attacks on more than 2.5 million civilians during
the Korean War. Hundreds of thousands
of civilians are believed to have been massacred. The anti-communist atmosphere of the McCarthy era ensured that an
anti-war opposition in the U.S. never developed. Koreans from north and south Korea, Canada, Europe, Japan, the
U.S. and elsewhere, will be joined by peace activists from throughout the
country. Representatives from the 15 other countries that participated in the
war will also be present to put the U.S. government on trial for international
crimes against the Korean people.
The
IAC is a centre for information, activism and resistance to U.S. militarism,
war and corporate greed. Founded by
Ramsey Clark in 1991 to expose and oppose U.S. war crimes against Iraq from the
Gulf War onward, it has organized numerous trips to Iraq including two
delegations that brought over $5 million worth of medicine in direct defiance
of the sanctions. It has also led
campaigns to: oppose the war against Yugoslavia, free U.S. political prisoners
like Mumia Abu-Jamal (a black journalist on death row) and work with local
communities against police brutality in the U.S.
Contact: IAC, 39 West 14th Street, Room 206,
NY, NY 10011 USA. Tel: (212) 633-6646;
Email:<mailto:iacenter@iacenter.org>
Web: <http://www.iacenter.org/>