South Korea fines VW more than $12 million for emissions violations

It also imposed 14.1 billion won (12.3 million) in penalty fees.

The ministry ordered Volkswagen Korea to stop selling all cars equipped with the EA189 engine and to recall all 125,522 units already sold in the country.

Volkswagen AG was given 45 days to plan a recall of models with 3.0-liter diesel engines found to contain software that California regulators consider a possible “defeat device” that can distort emissions tests. According to an explanation provided by the company on how it plans to fix the issue, the two affected engines are 1.6- and 2.0-litre ones and some 8.5 million cars are affected; however, the fixes are less complex than initially thought.

Cars with the 1.6-litre engine – including the Volkswagen Polo and Audi A1 in Australia – will also require the fitment of a “flow transformer”, which calms the air flow in front of the engine’s air sensor to provide a more accurate reading.

In a statement released on Thursday, Volkswagen said it could fix its rigged engines in as little as 30 minutes but could not guarantee its solution would not affect the fuel consumption or the overall performance of the cars that were created to cheat pollution tests.

“Audi, Porsche and VW all independenly certified their products and, therefore, individually responsible for their violations and future recall actions”, it said.

The defeat-device software allows cars to perform better in emissions tests than they do when driving normally on actual roads.

In addition to Volkswagen and Audi, the manufacturers or dealers that sell diesel cars in South Korea are: Hyundai, Kia, GM Korea, Renault Samsung, Ssangyong, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Peugeot, Ford, Nissan, FCA Korea and Forza Motors Korea, which imports Ferrari cars.

Volkswagen says the aim is to implement the required technical update in the first vehicles during a recall from January 2016. Testing of 15 other automakers’ diesel models would be completed by April.

He said there were numerous factors in play in the case but told the court he had “read the papers” and was aware Volkswagen’s United Kingdom chief had publicly apologised to its customers just last month.