Kim Yong-beom "Even if we invest up to 20 billion dollars annually in the U.S., there will be no shock to the foreign exchange market"

Korea Economic Daily

Summary

Kim Yong-beom, the policy chief, said the up to 20 billion dollars annually in U.S. investment is an amount that would not shock the foreign exchange market.
He said investment funds can be procured without burden through the central bank's reserve assets and the Foreign Exchange Stabilization Fund.
He stated that if there is uncertainty in the recovery of principal and interest from investments, investments would be restricted through the consultative committee and the profit distribution ratio could be adjusted.

On March 25 in Yeouido, Seoul at the Conrad Hotel, Kim Yong-beom, the newly appointed policy chief, delivering a presentation at the '2025 Virtual Asset Investment Insight Forum' hosted by The Korea Economic Daily. Choi Hyuk, reporter

Kim Yong-beom, policy chief of the Presidential Office, on the 6th rebutted concerns that the up to 20 billion dollars per year in U.S.-bound investment agreed in the tariff negotiations could adversely affect the foreign exchange market, saying, "It is an amount we can procure without burden and that does not shock the foreign exchange market."

At the parliamentary audit of the Steering Committee held at the National Assembly that morning, Kim said, "Including the central bank's reserve assets and the Foreign Exchange Stabilization Fund, we can procure about 15 to 20 billion dollars without burden," and added, "It is an amount that does not shock the foreign exchange market and a figure we analyzed and responded to closely with the central bank."

He also emphasized that they made every effort to secure multiple safety measures.

Kim said, "We inserted Article 1's commercial rationality clause so that projects with uncertain recoverability of investment principal and interest would not be started in the first place, and so that our consultative committee would not agree to them."

Regarding concerns that imbalanced profit distribution could make recovery of principal from U.S. investments difficult, he said, "(The profit distribution ratio) 5-to-5 could not ultimately change the numbers because of Japan, but the text also includes a clause that allows adjustment of the ratio if it is judged in the interim that recovery of principal and interest is uncertain."

Shin Min-kyung, Hankyung.com reporter radio@hankyung.com