The Bank of Korea(BOK) says more than 600 counterfeit bills were uncovered in the first half of the year.
 
According to the central bank on Thursday, a total of 637 fake bills were found in the country during the January to June period. That's 72 more compared to the second half of 2015.
 
The bank said the forged bills were discovered during the bank’s processing of bills or after financial institutions or individuals reported about them to the bank.
 
The number of uncovered counterfeit bills fell in the second of half of last year compared to the first half of that year before surging again in the first half of this year.
 
During the first half of 2015, two-thousand-12 counterfeit 50-thousand won bills were found at a jewelry store in Jeonju city in North Jeolla Province.
 
Four-hundred-37 of the fake bills uncovered in this year’s first half, or nearly 69 percent, were five-thousand won bills. One-hundred-78 of the bills were ten-thousand won bills, 15 were one-thousand won bills and seven were 50-thousand won bills.
 
The number of counterfeit 50-thousand won bills fell sharply from the 135 posted in the latter half of 2015 but the number of fake five-thousand won bills surged from 267 to 437.