Yoon and Biden may discuss currency swap at UN next week

An employee from Hana Bank organizes dollars at the bank branch in central Seoul [NEWS1]

President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden could explore a currency swap deal between the two countries when they meet in New York next week, a presidential official said Friday.

Choi Sang-mok, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, told reporters he would not get ahead of the meeting slated to take place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, but that both sides have taken an interest in the issue of reopening a currency swap line.

"The leaders agreed during their summit in May to cooperate closely over the foreign exchange market and we also had talks between our finance ministers," Choi said. "We expect that some sort of discussion could naturally take place."

When pressed to clarify whether the subject could be discussed between the two governments, Choi stressed that he expected such discussions only because the two leaders had agreed to cooperate on the matter in May.

Calls for a currency swap arrangement have grown amid the Korean won's continued fall against the dollar.

The two countries had a $60 billion currency swap contract in place from March 2020 through its expiry in December 2021.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, YONHAP [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]