South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance convened the sixth cross-government task force meeting on illegal foreign exchange trading and agreed to deepen coordination among agencies to curb market-disruptive foreign exchange violations. The meeting reviewed investigations into export-import related illegal foreign exchange transactions that the ministry said have increased amid a period of high exchange rates, and focused on strengthening enforcement of the foreign exchange management framework, including overseas financial account reporting. Korea Customs Service said it had referred 84 cases worth KRW 2.4 trillion to prosecutors by the end of May. The customs authority said its enforcement this year has focused on crimes that reduce foreign exchange liquidity, including offshore asset flight and trade settlement using virtual-asset-based underground remittance, and that it will expand investigations into procedural violations, import and export price manipulation, and money laundering. The National Tax Service said this year's reporting under the overseas financial account disclosure regime was completed at the end of June 2026 and that it will support foreign exchange management through strict collection and sanctions for concealed overseas accounts. Under that regime, residents and domestic corporations must report overseas financial accounts when their aggregate balance exceeds KRW 500 million, with non-reporting subject to fines and, for undeclared amounts above KRW 5 billion, possible public disclosure and criminal penalties. Customs and the tax authority will intensify information sharing so foreign exchange investigations can feed into offshore tax evasion probes and undeclared foreign-currency funds can be traced and recovered. Separately, the ministry's director general for international finance assessed that large forward dollar sales by major semiconductor and heavy industry companies had begun to improve foreign exchange market supply and demand and ease one-sided market pressures. He also pointed to a record first-half trade surplus of USD 138.3 billion as a basis for expecting more favorable foreign exchange flows in the second half.

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