The 73-year-old Kim, long one of the most powerful officials in the IOC, was arrested while in hospital in January on charges connected with his leadership of the South Korean National Olympic Committee and the World Taekwondo Federation.

Officials at Seoul District Court were not immediately available to confirm the Yonhap report. The agency said Kim was also fined 780 million won ($670,100).

Prosecutors had charged him with taking 3.8 billion won ($3.27 million) from taekwondo federations and receiving bribes from sports officials and businesses. Taekwondo is South and North Korea's national martial art and an Olympic sport.

Kim is the latest of a series of prominent South Korean public figures to be caught up in investigations of murky financial transactions that were common in politics and businesses, but which Seoul has started to crack down on.

Businessmen, bureaucrats, dozens of politicians and a senior army general have all been prosecuted this year for bribery, embezzlement or other graft charges. Many received suspended sentences.

At Kim's previous court hearing on May 13, prosecutors asked the court to jail Kim for seven years and fine him 790 million won ($678,700). Kim's lawyer, Oh Se-chang, told Reuters then his client had already acknowledged three quarters of the charges and deposited 2.3 billion won toward his fine.

Kim, who has been held in a detention centre near the capital Seoul since late January after a request for bail was refused, was ill and tired, Oh has said on several occasions.

In a series of court hearings since early March, a number of businessmen have appeared as witnesses for both the prosecution and defence. Sports officials have appealed for clemency in view of Kim's decades of contribution to the Olympic movement.

Elected for the second time to the vice-presidency of the IOC last year, Kim resigned from all official positions in South Korea in January, including his seat in the National Assembly.

He was suspended in late January by the IOC pending an investigation into the charges against him in South Korea.

Kim received a serious warning from an IOC commission in 1999 for his part in a bribery scandal surrounding the selection of Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Games.

(Additional reporting by Lim Jong-nam and Judy Lee)