The foreign-exchange reserves of South Korea’s central bank will not be diversified, at least for the time being, the bank’s senior official said Sunday.

Park Seung, Bank of Korea Governor, said the bank sees no need in diversifying reserves «at the present.» "We have large foreign-exchange reserves, and diversification at this stage can send the exchange rate further down, so we don’t have such plans at the present," he said.

Mr. Park said he would take part in three-party meeting due to take place in Seoul in May, 2005, where the central governors of the three countries – Japan, Korea and China – will probably discuss key issues they face in foreign exchange.

Park also added that he would not speculate on the foreign exchange flotations in Asia before the meeting with Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui and People’s Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaouchuan.

"We can’t have a further fall in the exchange rate. The won has appreciated 2% so far this year, whereas the yen and the euro have respectively depreciated 5%," he said.