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Labor groups, employers and government officials are gearing up for the introduction of a five-day workweek as President Kim Dae-jung promised to positively study ways of cutting working hours.

The tripartite presidential labor commission set up a special committee to discuss how to reduce working hours on May 24. And labor, management and government agreed in principle to the five-day workweek proposed by unionists Wedesday.

Labor Minister Choi Sun-jung disclosed that the government will work out revision bills of the current labor law in order to get parliamentary approval for a shortened workweek within the year.

One day before tens of thousands of union workers went on general strike Tuesday, President Kim also said he would review the proposed five-day workweek and a cut in working hours.

The remarks by the president and the minister were partly seen as a gesture to placate workers belonging to the hard-line Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), who began the general strike Wednesday.

Workers showed mixed reactions to the government move, urging the administration of President Kim to hammer out concrete measures to curtail the current six-day workweek to five.

Some labor activists cast a dubious eye on the pledge by government, which was apparently designed to prevent workers from joining the walkout.

Many employers are still opposed to the introduction of a shortened workweek because of fears about growing labor costs.

In this context, workers and government officials are expected to have a long way to go before a five-day workweek system is introduced.

The KCTU, one of the nation's two umbrella labor groups, has been spearheading the introduction of the new workweek.

``It is high time the nation should reduce legally binding working hours from 44 hours per week to 40 hours in order to put the five-day workweek in motion,'' said Kim Tae-hyon, director of the KCTU's policy and planning department.

He pointed out that Korean laborers were found to have worked the longest hours, 2,497 hours last year, among workers of the 29-member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

He requested that government become more active in cutting working hours by not only implementing the five-day workweek but also a five-day school week for elementary, middle and high school students.

According to a recent survey by Hangil Research & Consulting Group, 78 percent of Koreans are in favor of a cut to the workweek. And 69.4 percent said the five-day workweek scheme should be enforced by 2002.

The KCTU director claimed that the reduced workweek will help workers enjoy a higher quality of living and improve their productivity.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) has also shown keen interest in the shortened workweek.

``Korean workers have been shouldering too much of a work burden. Many of them were often victimized by industrial accidents,'' said Lee Sang-yeon, deputy director of the FKTU's information and publicity department.

He stressed that a cut in working hours will also bring benefits to employers, predicting that labor productivity will be improved with corporate turnover rising.

He said it is urgent to reduce the average working hours because Korean workers were found to actually work 47.9 hours per week on average in 1999. Manufacturing workers were reported to work 50 hours per week.

However, the Korea Employers Federation (KEF) said that it is too earlier to have the five-day workweek because there are too many issues to be dealt with.

``In principle, we agree on the need to slash the six-day workweek by one day. But we are worried about many side effects to the national economy,'' said KEF spokesman Choi Jae-hwang.

He said that wages should be cut if the new workweek system were to be applied because working hours will automatically decline.