The South Korean currency sharply weakened against the U.S. dollar on Monday as the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing sparked concerns about capital outflows from emerging markets, dealers said.

The local currency was trading at 1,081.55 won per the greenback as of 10:52 a.m., down 11.15 won from the previous session.

The won fell as low as 1,082.30 per the dollar at one point after the market opened.

The Fed said last week it will stay on course by reducing monthly asset purchases to $65 billion starting this month, citing the improvement in the U.S. economy.

In December, the Fed decided to start tapering the quantitative easing from $85 billion to $75 billion in January.

The Fed's move has sparked concerns about capital outflows from emerging markets which are vulnerable to volatile cross-border capital flows. (Yonhap News)