The Pension Future Forum's Grave Concerns Regarding the Stock Market and the Offshore Won–Dollar Market

On January 28, Newsis reported the outcome of the National Pension Fund Management Committee meeting — convened without prior notice on January 26 — as follows.

"The National Pension will repatriate approximately 25 trillion won from overseas equity markets, secure more than 7 trillion won in additional capacity for domestic equity purchases, and increase domestic bond investments by more than 17 trillion won." (A link to the relevant article is attached.)

The minutes that would reveal how this decision was reached have been sealed until 2030.

This means the detailed background of the decision will remain inaccessible until that time.

On January 29, the newly established Ministry of Planning and Budget — even in the absence of a minister — passed pension fund operating regulations that restrict overseas investment by the pension fund, impose controls on currency hedging, and effectively compel pension fund investment in the highly volatile KOSDAQ market.

The movements in domestic equity markets, government bond markets, and the foreign exchange market on January 29 and 30 appear to warrant serious concern.

This is because foreign investors sold more than 3.6 trillion won in the domestic equity market over those two days (January 29 and 30).

In other words, foreign investors liquidated — in just two days — approximately half of the 7 trillion won in additional domestic equity investment capacity secured through the emergency Fund Management Committee meeting on January 26.

Notably, the yield on the 10-year government bond — which reflects the medium- to long-term outlook for the Korean economy — temporarily surged to approximately 3.612% before dropping sharply to around 3.577% near the close of trading.

It is reasonable to conjecture (?) that this may have resulted from the more than 17 trillion won in domestic bond investment capacity secured through the emergency Fund Management Committee meeting on January 26.

There appears to be no particular market-driven reason for government bond yields to have fallen so sharply in such a short period of time.

At the same time, the won–dollar exchange rate surged by 18.63 won (1.3%) in the offshore market, reaching the 1,450 level.

All of these developments appear to represent highly abnormal market dynamics.

Nevertheless, the Governor of the Bank of Korea stated that he could not understand the recent sharp rise in the exchange rate, and expressed relief that the rate remained around the 1,430 level due to external forces. (Related material has been posted in the resource section of the Pension Future Forum website.)

Furthermore, the President of the National Pension Service — which is, after all, merely a policy-implementing body —

held an exceptionally large-scale New Year press briefing, in which he asserted that a sustainable National Pension system could be achieved while simultaneously declaring that "the introduction of an automatic adjustment mechanism — the very essence of structural pension reform — is premature."

The Pension Future Forum views all of these developments and phenomena as indicative of a situation that cannot be considered normal, and is deeply concerned by what it observes.

https://www.pensionfutureforum.org/index.php/2026/01/28/post-20260128-091239-3385/