South Korea Releases Roadmap for Internationalizing the Korean Won, Plans to Issue Won-Pegged Stablecoins and Pilot Government Bond Tokenization

Odaily Planet Daily News: The South Korean government today released a "Roadmap for Internationalizing the Korean Won," aiming to transition the won from a regulated currency to a freely convertible one and to establish an offshore won settlement network. The Bank of Korea will launch a system tentatively named the "Offshore Won Settlement Network," which is expected to begin a trial run in September this year and officially launch in January next year. South Korea will also build digital asset payment infrastructure to lay the foundation for the issuance, distribution, and trading of won-pegged stablecoins. It plans to initiate a pilot project next year to promote the tokenization of government bonds linked to the Bank of Korea's central bank digital currency (CBDC). Additionally, South Korea will formally join the Agora project, a cross-border digital payment initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) that brings together central banks from eight countries.