# [WARNING] Bank of Korea to resume official gold purchases after 13 years

*Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 10:17 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Detected**: 2026-08-04T10:17:21.857Z (2h ago)
**Tags**: MARKET, metals, gold, central banks, FX, South Korea
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/alerts/17012.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Summary**: The Bank of Korea will reportedly buy gold for the first time in 13 years, signaling renewed official-sector demand from a major Asian central bank. This supports bullion prices and reinforces the trend of reserve diversification away from the US dollar.

## Detail

A report indicates that the Bank of Korea (BoK) plans to purchase gold for the first time in 13 years. BoK is a sizeable and conservative reserve manager, historically underweight gold relative to peers, with foreign reserves north of $400 billion and only a small single-digit percentage in bullion. Its re-entry into the gold market, even without volumes yet specified, is a significant signal for both the physical and financial gold markets.

Central bank buying has been a key structural driver of gold in recent years, with record purchases from emerging-market institutions (notably China, Russia, Turkey, and others). The addition of South Korea – a close US ally and traditionally dollar-centric reserve holder – to the list of active buyers underscores a broadening desire to diversify reserves, mitigate geopolitical risk, and hedge against US rate and sanctions risk.

If BoK were to raise its gold share by even 2–3 percentage points of reserves over several years, that would translate into tens of billions of dollars in incremental demand, equivalent to hundreds of tonnes of gold. While near-term purchases may be staged and opaque, markets will tend to front-run this shift, supporting spot XAU and long-dated gold pricing. The move also offers psychological support to other Asian central banks considering similar diversification.

Immediate impact is bullish for gold prices and modestly negative for the US dollar on the margin, insofar as reserves are reallocated from USD and possibly EUR into bullion. Gold miners and related equities may also benefit from higher price expectations. Historical episodes when major Asian central banks announced or revealed gold accumulation (e.g., China’s periodic disclosures, Russia’s accumulation pre-2022) have been associated with multi-percent rallies in gold over subsequent weeks, though causality is not always clean.

The impact is structural rather than transient: once a central bank shifts its allocation framework toward gold, it tends to persist for years. This announcement adds to the ongoing narrative of official-sector gold accumulation and reserve diversification, likely supporting gold’s risk-premium and safe-haven bid through cycles, especially amid geopolitical tensions in the Gulf and East Asia.

**AFFECTED ASSETS:** Gold, USD/KRW, Gold mining equities, DXY, KOSPI financials