The tonnage
The Bank of Korea holds 104.4 tonnes of gold, 1.1 per cent of its foreign exchange reserves. Its last purchases were in 2013. It has now built a framework with the Korea Exchange and the Korea Securities Depository to buy from domestic producers at international prices, aiming for 4 to 5 tonnes a year against domestic output of 40 to 50 tonnes from LS MnM and Korea Zinc.[1]
Put those three numbers next to each other and the shape of the decision is clear. A purchase of 4 to 5 tonnes against a holding of 104.4 tonnes is a slow addition; against domestic output of 40 to 50 tonnes it is a modest claim on the local pour. Neither figure is large enough to matter to a world market that prices in thousands of tonnes. The framework changes where a small quantity of metal comes to rest and in which currency it is paid for, leaving the balance of supply and demand untouched.[1]
The route the metal would take
The mechanism is worth following step by step, because it is the whole point of the announcement. Purchases would be negotiated block trades rather than exchange trading, settled in won, which removes the dollar conversion an offshore purchase would require. The Korea Securities Depository would handle settlement and storage, the Korea Exchange the trading platform. The bank has also said it wants to spread storage beyond London and New York. Metal bought from a domestic refiner and stored domestically never crosses a border, so the route is the reason for the framework, not a detail of it.[1]
There is a competing reading of the same design that should not be dismissed. Settling in won and buying from a domestic refiner is convenient for reserve management regardless of where anyone thinks the metal is safest, because it avoids using foreign exchange to acquire a reserve asset. Cho Sok-pang, who heads planning, described a gradual, long-term approach focused on raising the share of gold in reserves rather than buying mechanically on price moves, and that is a portfolio statement rather than a statement about vault location. The two motives point the same way here, which is exactly why neither is proved by the framework alone.[1]
Announced is not settled
And this is where the framework stops being a purchase. The bank's own account is that the buying waits on the completion of depository infrastructure. Until that is built, there is no settled trade, no tonne in the vault and no change to the 104.4 tonnes on the books; the reserve management group's very small purchases of overseas-listed spot gold funds in the second quarter of 2026 are a different exposure, held offshore in a form the whole framework is designed to move away from. A refinery that pours 40 to 50 tonnes a year is not the constraint here. The constraint is a settlement and storage system that has not been finished, and no announcement moves metal.[1]