Anchor: South Korea's foreign exchange reserves surpassed the 400 billion dollar mark in June for the first time in history. This is more than a hundredfold increase from 1997, when Korea suffered from a financial crisis. 
Our Hong Suhryung has more. 

Report: The Bank of Korea and the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday that the total value of the country's foreign exchange reserves amounted to a record 400-point-three billion U.S. dollars in June, up one-point-32 billion dollars from a month earlier.

The nation's foreign reserves increased for the fourth straight month since March, and surpassed the 400 billion dollar mark for the first time. 

Compared to 1997 when the figure stood at three-point-nine billion dollars, the country's foreign reserves have increased more than a hundredfold. South Korea’s foreign reserves stood at 100 billion dollars in September 2001, 200 billion dollars in February 2005, and 300 billion dollars in April 2011. 

Ever since the financial crisis two decades ago, South Korea has focused on building up foreign exchange reserves. The recent growth is attributed to a steady increase in the country's current account surplus and a rise in returns from investments of foreign currency assets. 

At the end of May, South Korea placed ninth in the world in terms of the amount of foreign exchange reserves. China ranked in first place with reserves of three-point-110 trillion dollars, followed by Japan with one-point-254 trillion dollars. 

South Korea's short-term foreign debt to foreign exchange reserve ratio also fell to about 30 percent as of late March, down from 286 percent in 1997, meaning that solvency also improved.

An official from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said that the growth of foreign exchange reserves and private assets acts as a basis for judging a country's international credit standing.

As for disclosing foreign exchange intervention records, a BOK official said that the current level of disclosure will not have a negative impact on the market, and that it is part of efforts to increase transparency.
Hong Suhryung, KBS World Radio News.