South Korea's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high in January, helped by an increase in operating profits and rising conversion values of assets, the central bank said on Monday.

The country's foreign reserves amounted to 295.96 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of January, up 4.39 billion dollars from 291. 57 billion dollar the preceding month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a report.

The reserves exceeded the previous record high of 293.35 billion dollars registered for October last year, a mere 4 billion dollars shy of the psychologically important 300 billion dollar mark. The gain in January was mainly attributable to an increase in the operating profits on the foreign reserves and in the dollar translation values of euro- and pound-denominated reserves in line with the strengths of those currencies against the dollar, the BOK said.

"Rising investment profits and strengthening euro and pound values boosted the nation's foreign reserves in January, but it is hard to say when the reserves will hit 300 billion dollars as the values of non-dollar currencies could depreciate against the greenback due to uncertainties such as the European debt concerns and the Egyptian unrest," Shin Jae-hyuk, an economist at the international department of the BOK, told Xinhua.

As of the end of January, the country's foreign reserves consisted of 262.44 billion dollars of securities, 28.59 billion dollars of deposits, 3.67 billion dollars of Special Drawing Rights, 1.18 billion dollars of its IMF reserve position and 0.08 billion dollars of gold bullion.

The reserve position of an IMF member is the difference between its quota and the IMF's holding of its currency. Any member can draw down its reserve position at any time in the form of convertible currencies.