Seoul - Ssangyong Motor Co. said Sunday it may seek liquidation if its union refuses to compromise on layoffs.

The comments came after three days of talks with the labour union to end two months of strikes collapsed Sunday over differences on how many workers will be kept.

"We offered to keep more workers than before in a compromise, but the union insists on no job cuts. So we decided it no longer makes sense to continue the talk," Ssangyong's court-appointed manager Lee Yoo Il said in a televised news conference on Sunday.

"If the illegal factory occupation by the labour union and its violent actions continue to occur, we have no other choice but to consider a possible liquidation," Lee added.

The fifth-largest South Korean carmaker in February secured court protection from creditors due to rising losses after its major stakeholder, China's Shanghai Automotive Industry, abandoned management control amid the bankruptcy protection process.

Hundreds of dismissed unionists have occupied the factory in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres south of Seoul, since May 21 to protest the job cuts.

Ssangyong said in April it plans to eliminate 2,646 workers, or 36 percent of its workforce, under a restructuring plan to avoid liquidation.

A South Korean bankruptcy court in May ordered Ssangyong Motor to submit the restructuring plan by September 15, after freezing the carmaker's debt and other obligations since January.

Some 1,670 workers have left the occupied factory voluntarily, but hundreds opposed the move and are staging a sit-in at the plant.

Ssangyong said that the strike had cost it 245.6 billion won (196.5 million dollars) in lost revenue.(dpa)