The US-based software giant sells its Windows XP Pro software for $400.58 to Korean customers, 43 percent more than customers in the United States pay, said the Program Deliberation and Mediation Committee (PDMC), affiliated with the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The panel found that 18 software programs, including those from Microsoft, sell in Korea at up to three times higher prices in the United States.

As for its Office software, which includes word processing (Word) and spreadsheet (Excel) software, Microsoft charges Korean customers $557.33, compared with a retail price of $499 in the U.S.

"The survey shows that such pricing difference is one of the factors for the software piracy of Microsoft products," Koo Ki-hoon, a spokesman at the PDMC, told Yonhap News.

The committee is not considering asking the ministry to investigate, Koo said.