[Anchor]

If Homeplus goes bankrupt, the biggest concern is that approximately 12,000 employees could lose their jobs all at once. Some 150 suppliers are also left with an average of 770 million won in unpaid settlements.

Reported by Hong Yeongjae.

[Reporter]

The news that the court has terminated the rehabilitation proceedings left Homeplus employees, who had been holding onto hope that their workplace could be revived, devastated.

[Homeplus Worker: The moment I saw the word 'terminated,' I didn't know what to think. I couldn't even tell if termination meant liquidation, but I just felt my heart drop. I thought the rehabilitation proceedings would be extended.]

With the livelihoods of 12,000 Homeplus employees and about 1,000 indirectly employed workers, such as parking attendants, pushed to the brink, the Homeplus labor union has ended its hunger strike, which had been ongoing for 51 days, in a state of despondency and despair.

The atmosphere is also chaotic among the 8,000 small business stores located within Homeplus.

Some tenants have already closed their stores early.

[Homeplus Tenant: We received a text from our headquarters telling us not to operate past Sunday. (Why?) Because if the payments go through Homeplus, the headquarters won't be able to collect the money. They said they would switch us to our own POS (Point of Sale) terminals.]

The situation is equally dire for companies that supply goods to Homeplus.

The 150 suppliers are owed an average of 770 million won in unpaid bills.

Damages for investors in short-term electronic bonds are also estimated to be in the range of 400 billion won.

To minimize the fallout, the government has decided to provide 440 billion won in emergency liquidity support to small and medium-sized partner companies and to pay up to 21 million won to those affected by unpaid wages.

Reported by Bae Moon-san | Video by Ahn Yeo-jin