S Korea to use 'diverse ways' to fight FX speculation

SEOUL, Nov 6 (Reuters) South Korea will continue to respect the foreign exchange market but will control speculative trading with a variety of methods, the new head of the Finance Ministry's international finance bureau told Reuters on Tuesday.

Shin Je-yoon, who replaced Hur Kyung-wook as the director-general, also said he would do his best to help the local currency market maintain stability.

''(The government) will use diverse ways to control any attempts to take capital gains through speculative trading and amplifying instability in the market,'' said Shin, who previously worked in the presidential office.

He did not specifically comment on the won's current level of around 908 per dollar, down about 1 percent after hitting a 10-year high of 899.0 last week.

The won has gained 2.4 percent this year against the dollar, lagging behind the region's best-performing currencies such as the Indian rupee and Philippine peso , which have gained 12 percent each so far this year.

REUTERS MP AS0618