SEOUL, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Two of the Bank of Korea's seven board members said the bank should consider further raising interest rates if inflation persists for longer than expected, November meeting minutes showed on Tuesday.

Raising rates would prioritise controlling price increases over risks to growth. On Nov. 30 at its final policy meeting of the year, South Korea's central bank unanimously kept monetary policy unchanged and signalled it may need to keep interest rates higher for longer to head off persistent inflation risks.

"(The BOK) needs to consider further tightening should inflation path stay above the expected trajectory and take longer to reach the target level," one of the seven board members said.

Another member who echoed that view said further rate hikes might be necessary, especially if supply-side inflationary pressure adds to higher inflation expectations.

Most economists see the BOK as having reached its peak rate after raising rates by 300 basis points, and expect it to start easing policy from the third quarter of next year as cooling inflation makes restrictive borrowing costs difficult to justify to the public.

Tuesday's minutes showed that most board members said monetary policy should remain restrictive for the time being as they warned of inflationary risks from the Israel-Hamas conflict and global oil prices. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christian Schmollinger)