The union leader of Ssangyong Motor Co. has been detained pending trial on charges of interfering with officials' attempt to dismantle protest tents in central Seoul earlier this week, court officials said Thursday.

The Seoul Central District Court approved the police request for an arrest warrant for Kim Jeong-woo, who leads Ssangyong's labor union affiliated with the Korea Metal Workers' Union, they said.

Former employees of the country's smallest automaker and civic activists set up three tents along the sidewalk in front of Deoksu Palace, across from Seoul City Hall, in central Seoul last year in protest against the company's mass layoff in 2009.

After the union members refused to voluntary withdraw, the Jung-gu ward office under the Seoul Metropolitan Government forcibly removed the tents in April.

The court at the time dismissed the police request for the arrest warrant for Kim, citing a lack of justification for his detention.

The union, however, again set up other temporary tents on the site, prompting the ward office to mobilize some 50 officials to forcibly dismantle the tents on Monday.

The local government said the crackdown on illegal facilities in the region is their right as well as duty. 

Kim has been detained on suspicion of the obstruction of justice and violating the law on assembly and demonstration.

"There is a need to detain (Kim) as he had committed a similar crime during the period of probation," Judge Cheon Hyoo-jae said.

As the court accepted the request for a formal arrest warrant, Kim will undergo an investigation under physical detention. (Yonhap News)