SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A Seoul court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a business tycoon accused of taking part in a sensational revenge attack after his son was hurt in a karaoke bar fight, officials said.

Hanwha Group Chairman and CEO Kim Seung-youn is suspected of kicking, punching and using a steel pipe to attack bar workers allegedly involved in a scuffle with his 22-year-old son on March 8 at a karaoke pub.

After questioning Mr. Kim at a hearing earlier Friday, the Seoul District Court accepted a prosecution request made on Thursday to issue an arrest warrant for him, said Hanwha spokesman Ju Cheol-beom.

Judge Lee Kwang-man said the warrant was issued on “concerns that he may try to destroy evidence,” according to Yonhap news agency.

Mr. Kim, who has been waiting all day at the prosecutors’ office for a court announcement, faces an immediate arrest and will be held at the Namdaemun Police Station in central Seoul.

In a statement released through his company, Mr. Kim said he will “humbly accept the law’s judgment.”

“I plan to explain everything that I know, truthfully and sincerely,” the statement said. “I am very pained and ashamed for not having been honest for the past two months.”

Earlier Friday, Mr. Kim said he regrets that he “failed to control impulsive emotion” and apologized for causing trouble.

“I hope there will never be a silly father like me again,” Mr. Kim told reporters after the court hearing.

The dramatic details of the case, which media have likened to a gangster movie, has drawn intense public interest in South Korea, where the heads of family controlled conglomerates wield great economic, political and social clout.

The younger Mr. Kim, a student at Yale University, reportedly suffered an injury that required 11 stitches in the scuffle on stairs outside the karaoke pub.

Victims have told police the elder Mr. Kim and his bodyguards took them to a mountainous area south of Seoul, where Mr. Kim himself allegedly assaulted them, including hitting one of them on the back with a 5-foot steel pipe.

They have also told police Mr. Kim later sought out another man at a bar in central Seoul and had his son beat him, according to a police statement.

Mr. Kim has denied all the allegations.

Hanwha was established in 1952 as the Korea Explosives Corp. It later developed interests in petrochemicals, finance, insurance, construction and retail. It also owns the Hanwha Eagles professional baseball team.

Mr. Kim, South Korea’s ninth-richest man, is worth about $971 million, according to Chaebul.com, a Web site that tracks the fortunes of the conglomerate chiefs and their families based on current stock prices.