SOUTH KOREAN UNION LEADER DAN BYUNG-HO ANSWERS IN SEOUL, 2000-07-13 (photo)

Dan Byung-ho (R), leader of South Korea's hardline Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), speaks at a news conference in Seoul July 13. Dan said the KCTU and civilian activist groups shared an opinion that President Kim Dae-jung should not be nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize because he was responsible for what he called an inhumane police crack-down on strikes by workers. He was referring to a recent police storming of a protest sit-in by union workers at a Seoul-based hotel and of another protest by striking workers of medical insurance cooperatives. Local media have reported Kim Dae-jung might be nominated as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate for his life-long fight against military-backed governments of the country over the past several decades before he rose to power in early 1998. YCS/PB