Top South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and all its affiliates officially announced their withdrawal of membership from the Federation of Korean Industries on Tuesday, further casting a cloud over the fate of the once largest business lobby in the country.

Officials from Hyundai Motor Group said all its affiliates were leaving the FKI as of Tuesday.

"Each of the 11 affiliates of the group has delivered their intention to quit as of Tuesday afternoon," a group official said.

Affiliates under the world's fifth-largest automotive group include Kia Motors Corp., the country's second-largest carmaker, and Hyundai Mobis Co., the leading auto parts maker here.

The group had widely been regarded to have left the FKI since all of the companies failed to pay their annual membership fees.

With the departure of Hyundai Motor Group, the four largest business groups here have now quit the organization that once boasted the 600 largest companies in South Korea as its members.

The four largest business groups include Samsung, SK and LG, which, together with Hyundai Motor Group, are said to have accounted for more than half of FKI's 50 billion won ($43.6 million) income in membership fees in 2016.

The groups, along with dozens of other leading companies, began to leave the FKI in the wake of a corruption scandal that has also led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

The FKI is suspected of working on behalf of the president and her friend Choi Soon-sil to coerce nearly 80 billion won in donations from its key member firms, including all four largest business groups, for two sports foundations set up and controlled by Choi.

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. and de facto heir of Samsung Group, has been arrested on charges of offering billions of won in bribes to the president and her friend, some through the FKI.

The FKI is now struggling to find a replacement for its outgoing chairman Huh Chang-soo, also the chairman of GS Group.

Informed sources have said it was having great difficulty in finding anyone willing to take over the organization currently mired in the worst corruption scandal in its 53-year history, though many have noted a failure to do so may very well mean its collapse. (Yonhap)