By Lee Kyung-min
The Seoul Central District Court on Sunday ordered Sigongsa, a publishing company owned by two sons of former military strongman Chun Doo-hwan, to pay 5.69 billion won ($4.6 million) to the state coffers on behalf of their father.
The court ruled that the company should pay the amount over the next six years.
Interest of up to 15 percent will be added unless the company pays a minimum of 700 million won each year, the court added.
This is the first ruling since the prosecution established a task force in 2013 to obtain some 220 billion won that Chun gained illegally while in office.
The suit was filed last April by the prosecution after a building in Seocho-dong, a property jointly owned by the two brothers Jae-kook and Jae-yong, was sold for 11.6 billion won at a public auction.
Sigongsa reported 1.55 billion won in profit in 2013 and 1.97 billion won in 2014.
In a similar move, the prosecution filed a separate suit seeking to collect 2.56 billion won from Libro, another publishing company owned by Chun Jae-kook.
In 1997, the Supreme Court convicted the former President of bribery along with other charges including the murder of senior military officers and lower ranking troops as well as leading an insurrection. The court ordered him to forfeit the 220 billion won. However, only half of that amount ― 1.13 billion won ― has been collected so far.
Chun has been delaying making the payments, infamously claiming one time to have only 290,000 won ($250) to his name.
Last year, the U.S. Justice Department handed $1.22 million to its Korean counterpart that had been collected from the sale of assets belonging to Chun.