South Korea's financial watchdog plans to partially lift a ban on stock short-selling sometime in June, Yonhap News reported, citing Lee Bok-hyun, the head of the regulator.

South Korea in November prohibited short selling of stocks in the domestic market until June 2024, after it found illegal trading by two foreign firms. It has launched a special investigation to look into trading practices at other banks.

"My personal ambition or plan, is to partially resume short-selling practices sometime in June," Lee, the governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, told reporters on the sidelines of meetings with offshore investors in New York, Yonhap said.

(Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)