Foreign financial firms have been hit with over 90% of all penalties for illegal short selling in South Korea, as per government data. During the first eight months of the year, the Financial Services Commission registered 45 cases of such illicit activities, resulting in fines surpassing KRW10.7bn (USD7.9m). While foreign firms were implicated in half of these cases, the penalties they incurred totaled KRW9.89bn, or 92% of the entire sum. Naked short selling, an act of selling securities without prior borrowing, remains a prevalent illegitimate practice in Korea. Despite rising fines and stricter oversight, a petition demanding further regulations garnered over 50,000 signatures, pushing for the modernisation of the system to better manage and prevent illegal short selling.