Customers of Volkswagen vehicles in South Korea plan to file a class-action lawsuit against the German carmaker in the United States for deceiving them on emissions results of cars with 3-liter diesel engines, their legal representative said Tuesday.

This is in addition to the ongoing class-action suit filed by customers of the carmaker's 2-liter diesel models whose emissions results were proved to be faked by using the so-called defeat device.

"As (Volkswagen) admitted to its wrongdoing related to the 3-liter diesel engines in the U.S., we plan to gather victims here and file a lawsuit with a court there first," said Ha Jong-sun, a lawyer of local law firm Barun.

The lawyer said that there are more than a few Volkswagen customers making inquiries about a possible legal action in relation to the damage they claim to have suffered due to manipulated emissions results.

The lawsuit is likely to be filed in the middle of February in the U.S. A similar suit will be sought in South Korea later, he added.

Vehicles newly found in the U.S. to have faked emissions through the engine electronic control unit are the A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 that were produced from 2009-2016, along with the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg.

Some market estimates put the number of the cars of the same models sold in South Korea at 50,000-100,000.

Last week, the environment ministry here asked the prosecution to investigate the head of the local unit of Volkswagen for failing to provide sufficient data related to its recall plan for around 125,000 emissions-faked vehicles.

In November, the ministry ordered Volkswagen to recall the vehicles whose emissions were found to be manipulated through the defeat device. The carmaker was also asked to provide data related to how it would maintain fuel efficiency even after removing the device.

Customer complaints are growing in South Korea as Volkswagen has not provided any compensation measures for its customers in the wake of the emissions-cheating scandal as opposed to its offering of around $1,000 worth of vouchers and other benefits to those in the U.S. and Canada. (Yonhap)