Arrest Warrant Issued for Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yeon

The police, who have been investigating an alleged revenge attack by Hanwha chairman Kim Seung-yeon, announced that they requested an arrest warrant for Chairman Kim on May 9.

He is facing charges of assaulting a person using weapons, injuring a person using weapons, group detention, group assault, group battery, and unlawful interference with officials.

He is accused of assaulting employees of a bar near Mt. Cheonggye with his bodyguards and employees of a private guard service after his second-born son, 22, was injured by the brawl with S bar employees in G club located in Cheongdam, Southern Seoul on March 8.

The police have found the Club S employees who were attacked and obtained medical certificates and statements from them saying, “We were taken to Mt. Cheonggye and Club S and beaten with lead pipe by the mogul, his son, and their bodyguards.”

Chairman Kim has continued to claim that he has never gone to Mountain Cheonggye and that he has no idea about the assault.

The police have announced that they have obtained evidences that could disprove his claims via an on-the-spot survey and a lie detector test. They are also confirming Kim’s mobile phone in a route from Cheongdam to Cheonggye and Cheonggye to Bukchang.

Meanwhile, Kim, the secretary of the Hanwha Group who has been in the center of this case, voluntarily appeared before police and admitted that he took the victims to the mountain for the first time, which is totally opposite to Hanwha’s argument so far.

Prosecutors announced that they will decide whether to request the arrest warrant to court or not after reviewing the request from the police thoroughly and quickly.

imsun@donga.com dnsp@donga.com