The pilot union at Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea's largest flag air carrier, said Friday they will go on a week-long strike later this month after their negotiations for a wage hike fell through.

The strike will start on March 24 for a seven-day run, the pilot union said. Some 230 out of the total 2,300 pilots at Koren Air will join the walkout, it said.

The strike, if held as planned, is the second of its kind following the previous walkout launched in December in protest against it's drawn-out negotiations with Korean Air management over wages for 2015.

In the latest negotiation held earlier in the day, the management proposed a 1.9-percent retroactive wage hike for 2015 and 2.3 for 2016, but the union did not accept them. Previously, the union had demanded a 29-percent hike in pay.

"There's just such a big a gap between (the proposals) and the change the union wants," the union said. "We will not close the window for negotiations, but in the meantime we cannot help but prepare for action to seek the change."

Under a 2010 revision to the aviation law, up to 20 percent of the unionized pilots could take part in the strike because the sector was designated as a crucial public service field. (Yonhap)

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