Koo Yun-cheol, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, said on the 14th that while "stabilizing the Middle East situation is important, if necessary we can make a verbal intervention," in connection with the recent sharp drop in the won's value.
Koo met with correspondents in Japan after a South Korea-Japan finance ministers' meeting in Kyoto, Japan, and said, "The dollar is strong, and the euro, the yen, and the won are depreciating."
Koo said, "At this meeting, the two countries discussed closely monitoring the foreign exchange market for stability and taking appropriate measures against disorderly movements," emphasizing that the two countries will respond jointly if necessary.
Regarding the South Korea-Japan currency swap (currency exchange) set to expire in November, Koo said, "We shared the view that, given the current high volatility in financial markets, it is not the time to discuss specifics," but added, "We will consult with Japan on the size and other details going forward, and the Japanese side also said it will engage actively in the talks."
Earlier, South Korea and Japan signed a $10 billion (about 15 trillion won) currency swap contract on Dec. 1, 2023. The contract term at the time was three years.
In addition, Koo said Japan's dependence on China for rare earths is lower than Korea's, and that the two sides agreed to share information on Japan's supply chain diversification and work closely together. He said, "Japan mines rare earths at mines in Australia, refines them in Malaysia, and is also highly interested in rare earth recycling," introducing that for permanent magnets, it is devising a method that does not use heavy rare earths.