This article aims to analyze the labor policy dynamics under the developmental state of South Korea between the 1960s and the 1980s, by delving into how the developmental state that put a top priority on economic growth had controlled labor and in what ways labor stood against state control. This kind of work is a necessary task for a balanced understanding of the merits and demerits of the Korean developmental state during the growth economy between the 1960s and the 1980s. To the end, this article first conducts theoretical discussions on the reality and performance of South Korea’s growth economy, from the perspective of the developmental state, and the alleged necessity of the state control on labor during the period. Consecutively, the article examines the diverse instruments of the state control on labor under the growth economy of South Korea. The next chapter analyzes labor’s response to the state control, paying a particular attention to the activities of democratic union movement under the state-led growth economy between 1960s and 1980s. The time span of analysis is between 1961 and 1987 when South Korea recorded unprecedented economic growth under the authoritarian developmental state of the governments of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan.