Othman Laraki

Micro-blogging site Twitter said on Thursday it will set up an office in Korea in December, just in time for the presidential elections. Twitter vice president Othman Laraki told reporters the company wants to strengthen its Korean-language service and create a separate page for the presidential election.

Twitter has hired three new Korean engineers at its headquarters in San Francisco and now plans to open a branch office in Seoul.

Since its launch in March 2006, Twitter has acquired 140 million active users around the world. The Korean-language service was launched in January last year.

Laraki added he hopes to boost Twitter's growth, which has been slowing, with the presidential election.

Conservative critics of the site say it could be used to spread unconfirmed rumors and lacking a user base diverse enough to reflect the view of all age groups. Laraki acknowledged the criticism, but also expressed optimism that it will be self-regulating and reflect diverse opinions.

He added there are no plans for the time being to take the company public but insisted this has nothing to do with Facebook's disastrous IPO earlier this year.