South Korean police raid Daewoo plant

Protesters battle riot police with water, rocks and sticks.

BUPYONG, South Korea -- Thousands of riot police have raided Daewoo Motor Co.'s main plant to try to end a four-day sit-in protest by 500 laid-off workers.

Helicopters clattered overhead while police officers used four excavators to break down the front gate.

Two earlier clashes between police and workers left a dozen people injured. Several union leaders were reported to have been detained.

Thick columns of smoke rose from piles of burning tires and broken furniture set afire by workers at the sprawling plant in Bupyong, 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of capital Seoul.

Police with hoses extinguished blazes before they spread to nearby buildings while protesters barricaded themselves inside a building, refusing to surrender.

Two helicopters flew overhead, broadcasting warnings for the workers to disperse or face arrest.

As the situation escalated, some of the protester's family members left for home by bus, escorted by police.

Authorities were trying to arrest 30 union leaders who organized the protest after the financially ailing company laid off 1,751 workers as part of its restructuring program.

Layoffs to attract buyer

About 300 laid-off workers and their families began a sit-down protest Friday night inside the Bupyong plant. Some 200 workers slipped past police lines in early Saturday, joining the sit-in.

In clashes over the weekend, at least two workers and three police were slightly injured.

Daewoo officials said they did not think the protest would spread because 5,000 workers at the company's two other plants in Kunsan and Changwon were not expected to join.

The government of President Kim Dae-jung considers layoffs a necessary step toward revamping the nation's bloated big businesses and regaining investor confidence.

Daewoo Motor collapsed in the midst of the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis. It has been surviving under court receivership since it filed for bankruptcy in November under an estimated bank debt of $10 billion.

Daewoo Group executives indicted

Meanwhile in Seoul, authorities on Monday indicted 34 Daewoo Group executives and accountants for their alleged involvement in operating a multibillion-dollar slush fund.

Prosecutors arrested and indicted Chang Byong-joo, former president of Daewoo Corp., five other former presidents of the company, and an accountant on suspicion they helped raise the fund through the conglomerate's London office between 1997 and 2000.

The officials were charged with fraud and violation of foreign exchange laws.

Prosecutors also indicted 27 others on the same charges, but did not detain them.

They say Daewoo raised 25 trillion won ($20 billion) by taking out illegal foreign-exchange loans and pooling funds from its subsidiaries through falsified trade documents.

Daewoo claimed the money was invested in its overseas facilities, but prosecutors say at least $8 billion of the money was stashed away as a slush fund for the group founder Kim Woo-choong.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Riot police clash with Daewoo workers
Strike looms after Daewoo layoffs

Daewoo International
South Korean Government
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

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