* Will no longer invest in Korea's Posco, Daewoo International
* Also cuts investments in Malaysia's IJM Corp, Genting
* Sold stakes worth $267 mln (Adds details on exclusions, stakes)
OSLO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Norway's $871 billion sovereign wealth fund has excluded two South Korean and two Malaysian companies from its investments, accusing them of turning tropical forests into palm oil plantations, the fund said on Monday.
Construction firm IJM Corp Bhd IJMS.KL and conglomerate Genting Bhd GENT.KL , both of Malaysia, and steelmaker POSCO 005490.KS and conglomerate Daewoo International Corp 047050.KS of South Korea, were removed from the fund.
The exclusions followed a recommendation by the fund's Council of Ethics, which said the firms or their subsidiaries were involved in the destruction of rain forests in Indonesia and Malaysia.
The decision to exclude steel firm POSCO, the largest of the investments, was due to its majority ownership of Daewoo International, which made it indirectly responsible for the subsidiary's activity, the council added.
The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global is the world's top sovereign wealth fund, with assets of $871 billion, and has a range of ethics criteria for excluding firms from its portfolio, including severe environmental damage, nuclear weapons making, tobacco production and labour conditions.
At the start of 2015, the Norwegian fund owned shares worth 1.49 billion Norwegian crowns ($180.24 million) in Posco, 67.5 million crowns in Daewoo International, 305.6 million crowns in Genting and 344.8 million crowns in IJM. It only updates its holding once per year.
Spokespeople for Daewoo International, Posco and Genting all declined to comment. IJM was not immediately available for comment.
Following the latest announcements there were 64 companies on the exclusion list, which also includes mining company Rio Tinto RIO.AX RIO.L and retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) WMT.N . The fund owns stakes in about 9,000 other firms globally. ($1 = 8.2667 Norwegian crowns)