[Defendant]
[Appellant] Prosecutor
[Court Below's Judgment]
Chuncheon District Court Decision 90No720, decided January 17, 1991
[Order]
The appeal is dismissed.
[Reasoning] The grounds of appeal are examined.
Article 13-2 (Prohibition of Third-Party Intervention) of the former Labor Dispute Mediation Act (노동쟁의조정법) prohibits a third party from intervening in a labor dispute for the purpose of manipulating, instigating, obstructing, or otherwise influencing the parties concerned. The purport of this provision is to prevent a third party who is not a party to the labor-management relationship from provoking, expanding, radicalizing, suppressing, or terminating a labor dispute, thereby impeding the autonomous resolution of the dispute between the parties themselves. Since the provision defines the requisite element as "an act of intervening for the purpose of manipulating, instigating, obstructing, or otherwise influencing the parties concerned with respect to the labor dispute," the "intervention" prohibited by the said provision should be interpreted as referring to an act of involvement amounting to manipulation, instigation, obstruction, or an influence of a similar degree upon the parties in connection with the labor dispute, and should not be construed as including mere acts of assistance, such as counseling or advice, that do not infringe upon the workers' autonomous decision-making.
The court below, in the same vein, held that the first charge against the defendant—namely, that while serving as a staff member of the Sabuk Labor Problem Counseling Center (사북노동문제상담소), the defendant, at the request of Non-Indicted Kim Chang-wan and others of the strike leadership of the Dongwon Coal Mine Sabuk Mining Office (동원탄좌 사북광업소), purchased on credit, from a shop located on Toegye-ro, Seoul, red headbands and handkerchiefs bearing the phrase "unity and struggle" to be used at the demonstration, and delivered them to the said persons—constitutes a case where the act does not amount to a crime or where there is no proof of the crime, and accordingly acquitted the defendant on this charge. This measure by the court below is justified, and there is no illegality therein as argued in the grounds of appeal. The argument is without merit.
Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed, and this judgment is rendered as stated in the Order by the unanimous opinion of the participating Justices.
Justice Park Woo-dong (Presiding Justice), Kim Sang-won, Yoon Young-cheol, Park Man-ho