Lee Eog-weon, chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC), has pledged to intensify efforts to combat stock manipulation and other unfair trading practices.
The commitment marks a hardening of the regulator's stance on market integrity as authorities seek to curb speculative excesses that have come to dominate local trading volumes.
The announcement follows a series of interventions by the FSC aimed at stabilizing the domestic equity market.
Regulators have previously issued stark warnings against excessive leveraged stock investments, cautioning that such practices could undermine the financial health of households.
More recently, the commission took action to dampen the surge in single-stock exchange-traded funds, a move designed to reduce the concentration of risk in highly volatile instruments.
Lee's vow to step up enforcement suggests that the FSC is moving beyond warnings to more active policing of market conduct.