SEOUL A team of workers of South Korea's bankrupt Daewoo Motor has arrived in France to hunt for their former boss Kim Woo-Choong, the fugitive founder of now defunct Daewoo Group, an umbrella body of trade unions said on Saturday.

The team plans to comb Europe in search of Kim for about two weeks, starting in France, albeit on bicycles displaying "wanted" posters promising a reward of $500.

"Arrest Kim Woo-Choong and stop layoffs," the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) quoted the three-member search squad as shouting upon its arrival at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris.

"And confiscate Kim's wealth smuggled abroad," the militant group quoted the searchers as saying.

The Daewoo Motor unionists representing 26 civic groups left Seoul on Friday after a delay due to a recent clash with the police over the layoffs of 1,750 workers.

"We've decided to hunt Kim Woo-Choong ourselves, as the government and prosecutors are not sincere about arresting Kim," Yoo Man-Hyong, a member of the squad, told a news conference in Seoul before his departure.

"We also plan to report the government's violent suppression of union activities to the International Labor Organization (ILO)," he added.

Daewoo Motor's workers have opposed the sale of the nation's third largest carmaker to a foreign automobile company, namely General Motors, and asked the government to nationalize it instead.

On Saturday, about 1,000 protesting KCTU members including Daewoo Motor workers threw stones at riot police near the company's main plant in Pupyong, west of Seoul.

Several protesters were severely beaten by club-wielding riot police, who detained six.

The KCTU said about 10,000 were expected to join the rally to protest layoffs at Daewoo Motor and the police clamp-down on labor activities.

(Reuter)