Four months after the death of K-pop singer Goo Hara, her older brother, Goo Ho In, has found himself locked in a court battle with their estranged mother, who has reportedly demanded half of Hara’s assets for herself. And Ho In, 30, has revealed more details as to why he wants to stop their mum from getting her way.

According to Ho In, their mother had abandoned him and Hara, who passed away on November 24, when they were just nine and seven respectively. But she showed up at the singer's funeral and insisted on being the family’s chief mourner. She was eventually stopped by the other family members.

“She was holding her phone in an odd way, and it turns out that she was filming a video,” said Ho In. “It seemed like she was collecting evidence [of some sort], hence we took her phone away and deleted the video.”

He continued: “I only heard about this later on, but the person who was asking celebrities at the funeral for photos was unfortunately our mother.”

Two days after the funeral, Ho In was at the lawyer’s office, where two people introduced themselves as his mother’s lawyers. That was when Ho In realised that she was intending to fight for her share of Hara’s assets.

Although the extent of Hara's assets have not been revealed, the late star reportedly owned a 3.2bil won (S$3.7mil) building in Nonhyun-dong. Hara, who made her debut with now-defunct group KARA in 2008, and went solo in 2016, also owned a loft apartment which is believed to be valued at more than 1.2bil won (S$1.4mil).

After their mum left, Hara and Ho In were raised by their grandmother as their father worked in construction sites all over Korea to earn money to support his family. It's said that their father has given his 50 per cent share of Hara’s estate to Ho In.

Under Korean law, parents will receive assets of their late children even if they did not raise or provide for them. The only exceptions are in the case of murder or other unusual cases, such as the falsification of a will. Ho In and his lawyer are in the midst of establishing the ‘Goo Hara Act’, which will disqualify family members who have neglected their duties towards their parents or children. The Act also calls for the assets to be split according to how much care the beneficiaries provided for the deceased. The petition, which has garnered over 100,000 signatures on the presidential Blue House website last month, has been forwarded to the National Assembly for evaluation.

Photos: PBE Media