Former Daewoo chairman arrested in Korea

Korean prosecutors have arrested former chairman of collapsed conglomerate Daewoo Group.

Korean prosecutors have arrested former chairman of collapsed conglomerate Daewoo Group.

Kim Woo-choong, one of South Korea's most wanted fugitives, was arrested immediately after he returned home early today following almost six years living abroad.

Mr Kim fled the country in 1999 and is accused of having falsified Daewoo's accounts to draw billions of dollars in illegal bank loans before diverting them overseas.

Mr Kim (69) arrived at Incheon International Airport near Seoul from Vietnam, and was immediately surrounded by dozens of prosecution and security officials who jostled with a crowd of journalists.

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Police believe he had been travelling in Europe since leaving South Korea, and that he acquired French citizenship. He left the country in October 1999 before charges were prepared, first heading for a Daewoo auto component factory in Yantai, China.

His motives in returning now are unclear. The South Korean press has speculated health issues, including a heart problem, may have played a role.

Mr Kim has come to epitomise the excesses of the country's chaebol- the privately controlled conglomerates whose unbridled expansion on borrowed money helped undermine the economy in the 1990s.