Foreign selling drives won to 16-year low

The Korean won briefly breached the 1,560-per-dollar level in overnight trading Friday, falling to its weakest point since the global financial crisis as foreign selling and broad-based dollar strength overwhelmed Korea's solid export fundamentals.

The won closed at 1,559 per dollar in Seoul's overnight market at 2 a.m.

Saturday after touching 1,561.5 during the session, its weakest level since March 2009.

The slide accelerated after the dollar-won rate ended Friday's regular session at 1,539.1, ...