[South Korea's Ministry of Finance: South Korea to Implement 24-Hour Forex Trading Starting July] South Korea's Ministry of Finance announced on Friday that starting in July, the foreign exchange market will be opened to allow 24-hour trading, further relaxing onshore trading restrictions in an effort to be upgraded to developed market status. South Korea's Vice Minister of Finance stated, 'We will formulate a roadmap for the internationalization of the Korean won in the first half of the year, aiming to significantly enhance the accessibility of the won and increase demand, such as developing offshore won financing. At the same time, we will advance related work in accordance with the published MSCI inclusion roadmap.' The introduction of the 24-hour trading plan comes two years after South Korea extended trading hours and allowed foreign institutions to trade the won offshore, as part of its efforts to join major global stock indices. Two years ago, the USD/KRW market was only open for six and a half hours daily, and direct dollar trading could only be conducted through two domestic interbank networks. The Ministry of Finance also plans to introduce a new offshore won trading system, relax reporting requirements, and simplify the registration process for market participants, while promoting demand growth through cross-border payment settlements and overseas financing.