Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo cares for a baby at the House of Angels in Flower Village welfare center in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province on Tuesday, as part of a Justice Ministry-ordered community service sentence. /Newsis

The auto baron pitched in with feeding and bathing babies and cleaning at the welfare center's House of Angels, a facility that cares for babies and infants before they are sent to adoptive families.

The 70-year-old chairman was sentenced on June 3 to three years in prison suspended for five years and 300 hours of community service for setting up illegal slush funds. He logged his first hours of service on June 19.

Holding a one-year-old baby on the floor for feeding, Chung said that taking care of babies made him feel as if he had grown younger. He was wearing a white shirt and a green vest for volunteers printed with the expression "I Love You."

"I feel as if the people here are my family," Chung said. "Personally I have 11 grandchildren. I'll take good care of the children here as if they were my own grandchildren."

Chung was briefed on business for an hour at the auto company's headquarters in Yangjae, Seoul before heading to Flower Village. He put in a full day from 9:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening at the House of Angels, breaking for lunch at the house cafeteria.

Chung plans to spend Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays doing community service and Mondays and Fridays working in his office. An official from the Korean Probation and Parole Office who supervised Chung said, "He will use the first 100 of the 300 hours he is ordered to perform helping people here at Flower Village. For the remaining hours, he will engage in nature conservation activities such as cleaning the coast in Taean, site of the country's worst oil spill disaster, assisting in restoration work at flood-stricken areas and taking care of trees and forests."

(englishnews@chosun.com )