Mumbai: Kim Woo-choong, the founder of South Korea's now-defunct Daewoo group, was again in the court today, admitting to hiding assets worth millions of dollars and pleading for leniency.

Appearing in court months after he was pardoned over one of the world's largest corporate failures, Kim Woo-Choong, 72, said, ''I don't know how much time I have left to live, but on this occasion I give my pledge to lead an exemplary life.'' 

Kim pleaded guilty to hiding assets worth 115 billion won ($111 million), reserved in the form of shares with Best Ltd Co (previously Daewoo Development), to avoid their forfeiture under a court order.

Investigators found stocks and 134 artworks worth more than 100 billion won that Kim had hidden following a probe into the alleged 1998 bribing by Cho Poong-eon, a Korean-American military weapons dealer, who wanted to help prevent Daewoo from going bankrupt and protect Kim from prison.

Kim's defence attorney also pleaded for leniency, saying he has been behind bars for false accounting and his hiding of wealth was related to a crime for which he had already been punished.

Prosecutors sought a one-year suspended jail term with a two-year stay of execution for the Daewoo Group founder. They also demanded a fine of seven million won on his former secretary for hiding documents.

The one-year suspended sentence will, however, ensure the ailing former tycoon will not go to jail. The court will pass sentence on September 4.

Daewoo had debts of $82 billion in 1999, when it was sold in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. The government spend some 30 trillion won to rescue its subsidiaries.

Kim fled the country but returned after six years. In November 2006, he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail for embezzlement and for accounting fraud involving 20 trillion won. He was also ordered to forfeit 17.9 trillion won and pay 10 million won in fines.

In December that year Kim's jail term was suspended on grounds of ill health and he got presidential pardon in December 2007.

He was, however, slapped with fresh charges after prosecutors found that he had stashed away 115 billion won in a shadow company he established and that he had not cooperated with their investigation.

Kim claimed that he could not previously forfeit the assets as he was in the midst of a legal dispute with Daewoo's creditors.

Before the financial crisis, Daewoo was exporting goods worth $17.6 billion a year - 13.3 per cent of South Korea's total exports - and employed 250,000 people worldwide.