SEOUL (REUTERS) - A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant on Friday (June 24) for a Korea-based Volkswagen AG executive in connection with the German automaker's cheating of vehicle emissions tests, a prosecution official said.

The arrest warrant is the first to be levelled against a Volkswagen executive anywhere in the world after the firm admitted to using software to fool emissions tests, spurring legal action in the United States, Germany, South Korea and elsewhere.

"This is just the beginning of the investigation," the official at the prosecution office said, declining to be named because the investigation was ongoing.