UPDATE 2-S.Korea's Lee says weaker won stokes inflation

(Recasts with spokesman, import tariffs, markets, analyst)

By Jack Kim and Yoo Choonsik

SEOUL, March 20 (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Thursday the falling won was stoking inflation, a rare comment on the currency by the country's leader and which analysts took to mean he felt it had fallen far enough.

And in a move to try to calm rising prices which threaten to upset Lee's pledge to bring rapid growth to Asia's fourth-largest economy, the government announced plans to abolish grain import tariffs.

Though the government sees the latest drop against the dollar as helping exports, it is also exacerbating the impact of high global commodities prices just weeks before a general election which Lee's conservative party hopes will give it a majority in parliament.

"Although there is more or less a positive effect, (the weaker won) becomes a threatening factor to corporate management, and especially appears to cause a sharp rise in consumer prices," the presidential Blue House quoted Lee as saying ahead of a meeting with chief finance officials.

The won KRW= has lost 11 percent against the dollar, 16 percent against the yuan, 17 percent gainst the euro and 24 percent against the yen since touching a 10-year high against the U.S. currency on Oct. 31, 2007.

"I take President Lee's verbal intervention as meaning that the won has gone far enough. He would look silly if now the won gapped to 1,100 against the dollar. I think his comments put the...(finance ministry and central bank) on notice to that effect," said Tim Condon, head of Asia research at investment bank ING.

CONCERN OVER PACE OF FALL