The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions on Wednesday staged yet another general strike, the second one this month. The KCTU also organized general walkouts in February, March, April and July, once every month and a half on average. "Our country is the only one on the globe that stages general strikes at a rate of once every 1.5 months," says the vice labor minister.

It was mainly reporters from foreign news agencies who bothered to attend the KCTU chairman’s press conference on Tuesday. Asked by a Reuters reporter if foreign investors might hesitate to put their money into Korea because of the strikes, he replied most foreign investments so far was made in pursuit of short-term profits, with little “healthy” investment in facilities.

The foreign direct investment ratio in our GDP is 8 percent, far below the world average of 22 percent. Not the least reason for that is our global reputation for belligerent trade unions with their termination to strike to the death at the drop of a hat. Even socialist China's commerce minister complains that Chinese businesses investing in Korea suffer from labor disputes. Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew wryly commented if masked unionists attacked the world market with the energy with which they struggle against riot police, Korea would no doubt become unbeatable.

Two moths ago the KCTU even made a racket at an investment blitz in Tokyo by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the moderate one of Korea's two umbrella labor groups, saying it was deceitful to try and woo investment on the strength of amicable labor relations and threatening to give foreign investors not a moment’s peace. The Japanese were stunned. The KCTU chairman, though aware of the fact that “healthy” investment is not exactly making a beeline for Korea, pretends to be unaware that his organization is the root of the problem. The KCTU chairman called the FKTU, which is boycotting the general strikes, "yellow.” General Motors, plagued by its unions, last year saw a deficit of W12 trillion (US$1=W934), shut 12 plants and laid off 30,000 workers. Leaders of Hyundai Heavy Industries and Construction, who inspected the scene a while ago, reported that U.S. trade unions “have woken up as their corporations have collapsed." The time is at hand when the people will have to take on the KCTU. If we win, both the people and country will survive; if we lose, both will perish.