Seoul  - The chairman of Hyundai Motor Co has been cleaning rooms and feeding and bathing abandoned babies at a Catholic welfare centre as penance for his embezzlement conviction.

"I feel like being young again with babies," Chung Mong Koo said while holding a 1-year-old in his arms. "I have 11 grandchildren, and I would like to be babysitting these babies as if they were my own grandchildren."

A court sentenced Chung, 71, in February to three years in prison for setting up 90 billion won (87 million US dollars) in slush funds to bribe officials.

Later, however, an appeals court reduced his prison term to 300 hours of community service involving physical labor, saying his imprisonment would have a negative impact on the country's largest carmaker, which accounts for about 5 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

The ruling enables Chung to run Hyundai's daily business. After the tycoon is briefed on the firm's business in the mornings, he rides to the welfare centre in Eumseong County in North Chungcheong province every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to take care of babies who are awaiting adoption.

While he carries out his sentence, he is also orchestrating Hyundai's drive into India and the United States.

Hyundai Motor America has launched an 80-million-US-dollar marketing campaign to propel its first luxury car, Genesis, into the US market while in India, Hyundai recently unseated domestic automaker Tata Motors Ltd as the country's second-largest car seller.

Reaction toward the court decision to change Chung's sentence from prison to community service has been mixed.

Some people welcomed it. "When the business tycoon is spending a day with the abandoned babies, he may become sympathetic to those who do not have much," said a student who responded to an online poll conducted by YTN cable television.

Other people said it was unfair. "I would be willing to spend 10 years in prison only if I could get several billion won," another YTN respondent said. "Chung is spending only 300 hours for service to pay for the 90 billion won of illegal money? That makes me sad." (dpa)