A Seoul court on Tuesday handed down a two-year suspended sentence to a former head of a teachers' union for obstructing official police business during the state rail operator's three-week illegal strike in late 2013.

Kim Jeong-hoon, former president of the liberal Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union, was found guilty of injuring riot police officers during raid on the head office of a militant union federation in December 2013.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kim to one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years.

The court said the nine jury members delivered a unanimous guilty verdict and a sitting judge upheld the jury's decision.

More than 8,600 rail union members didn't show up to work for three weeks in protest of the government's plan to create a subsidiary that would run some of the country's high-speed train services. They claimed it was the first step toward rail privatization and bound to result in job losses and reduced benefits.

Union members and striking rail workers clashed with police officers outside the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in central Seoul on Dec. 22 as officers forced their way into the building to round up union leaders from the state-run rail operator for questioning. Kim was one of the 138 people taken into police custody at the scene. (Yonhap)