Seoul police fight protesters angered over
Daewoo layoffs

SEOUL, South Korea
(March 17, 2001 10:39 a.m. EST ) - Thousands of South Koreans protesting government-backed layoffs threw stones and firebombs at riot police and burned an American flag Saturday.

Some 2,000 students, union members and laid-off workers held a march to condemn the government's goal of selling the bankrupt Daewoo Motor Co. to General Motors Corp. The clash left at least two protesters and one policeman bleeding in the face. Several students were detained for questioning, police said.

Urged on by government-controlled creditor banks, Daewoo Motor laid off 1,751 workers in February in order to make it a better business prospect for GM.

South Korea's third-largest carmaker has been surviving under court receivership - a process under which all debts were frozen and new management was installed - since it filed for bankruptcy in November with estimated debts of at least $10 billion.

President Kim Dae-jung has sought foreign investment to help overhaul the economy in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. But South Korean workers fear takeovers by foreign investors would mean more layoffs.

"Down with Kim Dae-jung! Oppose layoffs!" the protesters shouted as they occupied part of a boulevard in downtown Seoul.

About 600 protesters later moved to a nearby university, where they showered more than 150 firebombs on riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields.

Before dawn Friday, unidentified assailants threw several firebombs at GM's Korea headquarters in central Seoul and then fled. No serious damage was reported.

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