By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
A ruling party lawmaker, who made public a list of members of a teachers' union through his Web site despite a court order not to, vowed to remove the list at midnight Wednesday.
Rep. Cho Jeon-hyeok of the Grand National Party (GNP), however, made it clear that the war that he waged against the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union (KTU) is not over.
Some political analysts said the party tried to combat the teachers' union against the backdrop of the June 2 local elections where voters are to pick education superintendents, along with other key public posts.
Cho announced the plan to remove the list two days after he received a court order to pay 30 million won ($27,000) in cash to the teachers' union for each day the list remains public.
He told reporters that his decision was driven by this.
``The reason that I set the Wednesday deadline is because I can afford to pay for my decision until then,'' he said.
Cho has to pay 120 million won to the teachers' union for his refusal to obey the initial court ruling.
Welcoming the court's decision, the teachers' union said it would use the money to provide free school meals.
Despite his decision, 10 fellow GNP legislators plan to keep the list on their Web sites.
Earlier, the KTU said making the names available on the Internet was a breach of privacy of the unionized teachers, urging Cho and other GNP lawmakers to remove them.
Rep. Chung Doo-un of the GNP accused the KTU being politically motivated.
``The teachers' union was launched to help students learn what they were supposed to in school, preventing them from being victimized by a heavy work load,'' he said.
But the lofty goal disappeared as they fell into a trap of becoming a political organization, he said.
Chung claimed the KTU opposed the plan to evaluate teachers' performances because students taught by them showed relatively poor academic performances.
As fellow GNP lawmakers are determined to take Cho's side, the clash between the GNP and the teachers' union is expected to continue.