After the campaign to expose the connection between the military and POSCO was conducted and the op-ed was published in March 2022, POSCO contacted the Clinic for negotiation in August 2022, days before the deadline to file appeal to the Supreme Court. POSCO wanted "cease-fire" on POSCO's land taking as well as its relationship with the military, which implicitly includes the withdrawal of the lawsuit. In exchange, POSCO offered to "donate" a certain sum to a local represen

On November 18, 2021, the Clinic held a public seminar with the help of Open Net, exposing POSCO International's contribution to the Myanmar military junta(Tatmadaw)'s slush fund. It was demonstrated that about 5~10%(USD 1.825 Billion) of Tatmadaw’s annual slush fund came from POSCO International's Shwe gas development (in the presentation attached below). The payments from DAEWOO/POSCO resulted from the profit sharing structure shown below both on the gas extraction itself

After the powers of attorney were certified in February 2019, the plaintiffs tried to prove the case (i.e., coerced land transfer) relying on the testimony of the former local government officials who oversaw the transfer. However, COVID19, begun spreading in January 2020, caused the border shutdown which made it impossible to bring the witnesses to trial, and then in February 2021, the military coup took place, again prolonging the border shutdown beyond the COVID period.

Officially renamed as POSCO International, the company dropped a second roadblock to the farmers' justice, making a rare demand that the powers of attorney granting the plaintiffs' law firm YIGONG be certified by the South Korean consulate of Myanmar in Yangon. Kyuakphyu Island was 12 hours drive away from Yangon and many of the plaintiffs have not even ridden airplane before or visited Yangon. The cost of transporting all 21 plaintiffs to Yangon and back was prohibitive.

An excerpt of a news article of Korea University News with the screen capture of the Story Funding, which reads: "Our law schools's international human rights clinic began a crowd funding in order to raise the litigation expenses for Kyaukphyu villagers in Myanmar. Korean companies' resource development projects nearly robbed the Kyaukphyu villagers of their land, some people felt and their donations added up to KRW 2.24M." After the lawsuit was filed in March 2016, Daewoo

In 2011 through 2012, the Clinic continued with its general goal of enhancing transparency around the multinational extractive companies' cooptation with the local authoritarian regimes, while the fact-finding efforts on the Shwe gas project inside Myanmar met with practical difficulties and was limited to secondhand accounts through the refugees in the Thailand border towns. The 2010 meeting with Earth Rights International suggested making FOIA requests to KOGAS, the South K

The negotiation with POSCO International broke down late 2015. The 2015 visit team came back with the land transfer contract (called "Agreement Bond") showing DAEWOO International as the acquiring party and yet POSCO's Director CHOI Jongbin insisted that it was the Myanmar government, not DAEWOO, that acquired the lands. It has been determined that a lawsuit against the Myanmar government under military rule would have been futile (see previous postings). The only reasonab

After the August 2013 visit where legal representation was in place for the Kyaukphyu farmers, the Clinic contacted DAEWOO International in February 2020 for negotiation. Daewoo International was not acquired by POSCO and it was called POSCO International. POSCO International argued that, although DAEWOO paid for the lands, it was the Myanmar government entity Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) that was a party to the land transfer. It was conflicting with the fact that

During the four (4) fact-finding trips to Maesot or Chiang Mai in Thailand 2010-2013, the Clinic could hear only indirectly about the human rights situation around the Shwe gas facilities made inaccessible by the distance and borders tightly controlled by Myanmar's military. On August 18-19, 2013, the Clinic on its 5th fact finding trip finally visits Kyaukphyu Island and meets the farmers whose lands were taken by DAEWOO International under the process arranged by the milit

The Clinic made the fourth fact-finding visit this time again to Peace Law Academy in Maesot, Thailand and for the first time into Myanmar in the city of Yangon, and more importantly finally interviewed one activist (identity hidden here for security purposes) who had worked on Kyaukphyu Island to oppose the Shwe gas field development for environmental and community development reasons. The activist described in detail the land transfers made from the farmers on the island t