The head of South Korea's top financial regulator said Thursday he has offered to resign, ahead of an expected reshuffle of the Cabinet.

Financial Services Commission Chairman Choi Jong-ku told reporters that he tendered his resignation for President Moon Jae-in to widen the scope of his choice before the expected Cabinet reshuffle.

Choi, a former deputy finance minister who served at the finance ministry for about three decades, took the job in July 2017. 

Although one year remains in his three-year term as the chief financial regulator, Choi said it is the "right thing" for him to leave the post ahead of the expected Cabinet reshuffle.

Thursday's meeting with reporters had been originally scheduled for Choi to brief them on the FSC's stance on Japan's export curbs of high-tech materials to South Korea.

Tensions are growing between South Korea and Japan after Tokyo recently tightened controls on exports of key high-tech materials to Seoul, in apparent retaliation for a series of South Korean court rulings last year over Japan's wartime forced labor.

Choi said the FSC has reinforced contingency plans for the nation's financial sector in connection with Japan's export curbs.

But the Japanese measures are expected to have a limited impact on South Korea's financial industry, Choi said. (Yonhap)