SEOUL, March 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that the country will activate the government-wide emergency response system amid escalating Middle East tensions.
Lee told a cabinet meeting that the expansion and prolongation of the Middle East conflict were escalating instability in the supply and demand of crude oil and natural gas, saying the International Energy Agency was warning of the impact on the global economy while labeling the crisis the most significant threat to energy security in history.
He warned that it was made difficult to predict when and where problems may arise as petrochemical products are indispensable to daily lives, saying the country will preemptively activate the government-wide emergency response system to address the grave crisis, which can affect people's livelihood and the overall economy.
Lee ordered officials to devise specific measures to alleviate the impact on people's livelihood as the second public notice for maximum oil prices was scheduled for Friday.
Earlier this month, the country introduced a so-called petroleum price ceiling system, in which the government sets a legal upper limit on the selling price of oil products, adopting it for the first time since the oil price liberalization in 1997.
The cap on the wholesale prices, at which oil refiners supply products to gas stations, was set on March 13 for the first time, and the price cap will be adjusted every two weeks.
The president asked people to cooperate in overcoming the crisis by joining the energy-saving movement, ordering public institutions to implement the one-in-five vehicle rotation system.
The system is a policy that restricts the operation of vehicles one day a week based on the last digit of license plate numbers. ■
