Thousands of Volkswagen owners plan to ask South Korea's environment ministry to order the local unit of the German carmaker to refund the cost of their cars, a lawyer said Wednesday.

Jason Ha, who represents about 4,400 Volkswagen owners at Barun Law, said he will formally file the petition with the ministry as early as Thursday.


He said the government can order carmakers to refund the cost of cars under the law.

On Tuesday, the environment ministry rejected Volkswagen's plan to recall vehicles that fabricated emissions results for the third straight time, saying the local unit of the German carmaker did not admit to using a defeat device to trick vehicle testing.

The ministry rejected two previous recall plans in January and March for insufficient data and the lack of a proper outline to rectify the shortcomings of the vehicles affected.

Ha claimed that the ministry should immediately issue an order to the local unit of the German carmaker to refund South Korean owners cost of their cars as the U.S. government did for consumers.

Repeated calls to the ministry seeking comment went unanswered. (Yonhap)