By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Police opened investigations into allegations that some school uniform makers in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, provided rebates and alcohol to juvenile delinquents in return for the ``promotion" of their products.

Overheated competition among the dressmakers drove them to hire the students, who forced their peers to buy the products, it has been claimed.

A group of parents held a press conference at the local City Hall and asked for a police investigation into the alleged inappropriate liaison between the manufacturers and students.

According to the group, some manufacturers have collected local juvenile delinquents and promised that they would pay 10,000 to 15,000 won for every purchase they induce. Some even asked the students to spread malicious rumors about their rivals, they said.

These manufacturers took their ``promoters'' to a pension house in suburban areas for entertainment and provided the youngsters with booze, parents claimed.

``These students were able to enjoy karaoke, wining and dining. They were offered some pocket money, too, because they had the power to force their peers to choose the uniform company,'' a spokeswoman for the parents group said.

The group has secured documents of the students' confessions, a list of the concerned companies and teenagers hired by them.

Yonhap News agency quoted a local uniform maker saying that the students were abused by the manufacturers.

``As far as I know, some students were sued by their rivals for libel,'' he said, adding that some of the clothes makers received students' personal information from teachers for marketing purposes.

The parents' group spokeswoman said the case could be a nationwide one. ``We have received information that a high school student has been making a living through this uniform promotion since he was in elementary school,'' she said.

School uniform prices have risen nearly 10 percent over the past years, with the average price hovering between 200,000 to 400,000 won apiece.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr