Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Twenty-three Christian organizations of south Korea including the Church Human Rights Center held a press conference outside the general building of the "government" in Seoul on July 25, demanding the puppet authorities settle the lay-off issue driving workers to death.

At the conference speakers charged that the police authorities cracked down by force on the actions of workers of the Hanjin Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., who opposed the lay-off system and called for the repeal of the part-time job system.

They lambasted the police for firing tear liquid containing toxic materials fatal to human body.

The workers' action for building a world free from part-time job and lay-off is running higher across south Korea, they stressed.

They urged the director of the Police Agency to step down after making an immediate apology for having used violence to put down the workers' action for vital rights.

The Lee Myung Bak "government" should take a step to settle the lay-off issue threatening the life of workers and driving them to death, they held.