South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance announced that it will broaden investigations into illegal foreign exchange transactions that disrupt the foreign exchange market and keep the interagency Illegal Foreign Exchange Transaction Response Team in place on a permanent basis, rather than ending it in the first half of 2026. At a government-wide meeting on the issue, the Korea Customs Service reported that inspections completed by end-May had uncovered about KRW 415.4 billion in illegal foreign exchange transactions across 38 companies. Since January, the Korea Customs Service has been examining companies with large trade and foreign exchange activity over the past five years where declared import and export amounts materially diverged from actual payments and receipts. The expanded enforcement push will focus on unlawful early payment of import bills and delayed receipt of export proceeds, trade settlements routed through illegal money transfer services or virtual assets rather than banks, and overseas asset transfers through under- or over-invoicing. The National Intelligence Service also cited a recent case involving client funds disguised as trade payments, moved abroad and then returned to South Korea through virtual assets for conversion into KRW cash, with further investigation to examine possible overseas asset concealment and forged trade invoices. Authorities said interagency cooperation will be used to widen the probes and violations will be dealt with strictly under applicable laws.

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