The South Korean unit of General Motors (GM) Corp of the United States, which had filed for bankruptcy, will continue its normal operation as part of the new GM, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said on Tuesday.

"GM Daewoo continues to operate as normal," GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co. CEO Michael Grimaldi told reporters in Seoul a day after GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

According to Grimaldi's announcement, GM Daewoo will become part of a smaller New GM and that its preplanned activities, such development of GM's global mini and small car programs, will be put into move as normal.

Grimaldi said, however, the company is still in need of securing emergency funding as its U.S. parent's troubles and the global economic slump put it into a financial distress.

The CEO said GM Daewoo will continue its discussion with its main creditor and second-largest shareholder, Korea Development Bank (KDB), which the company has repeatedly asked for emergency loans worth 1 trillion won (US$812.3 million) since early this year.

While KDB urges GM Daewoo to offer part of its stake as collateral and give a "clear assurance" on the future of the company, GM currently has no plan of selling the company, the CEO said.

GM Daewoo was launched in 2002 after US-based GM and its partners purchased a majority stake of South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Group's carmaker, which went bankrupt in 1998.

GM Daewoo, with 19,000 employees, has contracts with more than 800 suppliers with a combined workforce amounting to tens of thousands.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)