Final negotiation in September 2022
- 4월 23일
- 2분 분량
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 representative organization in the benefit of plaintiffs for community development. To show its good faith, POSCO provided documentation of the past community development projects that it has contributed to (attached below) and also its settlement proposal for the plaintiffs.
Purpose: Expand the social responsibility projects for the villagers who have offered the land for the gas project and thereby create a mutually beneficial and cooperative relationship.
Amount: US$1,000,000
Period: 2023-2024
Area: Kyaukphyu Township’s Gonchwein and Malakyuan: 2 villages
Project:
not infrastructure development but supporting revenue regeneration for local communities (e.g., rice-making machines and other efficiency-raising farming machines)*
formation of villager representative organization and selecting and supporting awarded projects through that organization
After US$ 1,000,000 is disbursed, the company (POSCO) will not interfere on the progress of the projects
Schedule:
formation of villager representative organization and receiving project grant applications ~November 2022
selecting awarded projects ~ December 2022
preparing for and obtaining government approval for projects ~ March 2023
- Project period: April 2023 ~ December 2024
The plaintiffs welcomed such offer but were concerned that, in the past community development projects, much of the companies' contribution suffered "leaks" as it made its way through the local government bureaucracy. Plaintiffs proposed one condition: they can supervise the spending of the funding. To that end, they held a series of meetings to organize themselves into an entity that can supervise the spending.
POSCO, however, did not accept such supervision until the last day of filing the appeal to the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs went ahead and filed the appeal, and the negotiation did not move forward.
On December 16, 2022, the Supreme Court announced its decision not to grant a certiorari on the case and the judgment in the appellate court was affirmed. The lawsuit imagined in December 2009 and filed in March 2016 finally ended.