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President Lee Jae-myung on the 30th ordered that restrictions on public-sector vehicle operations—imposed to save energy following the Middle East war—be "fully lifted." He said that lifting ineffective restrictions in phases simply because they applied to civil servants amounted to "asking them to sacrifice too harshly."
After receiving a related briefing from Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Moon Shin-hak at a Cabinet meeting cum emergency economic review held at the Blue House that day, Lee said, "They say it's being eased from a two-day to a five-day rotation system, but public officials adopted the vehicle restrictions preemptively to set an example during a crisis." He added, "Does the lifting process really have to be done in phases? Wouldn't it be fine to just lift it all?"
He stressed, "We've fully lifted it for the public, yet we're still sacrificing. Is it even effective? It seems like a stopgap measure. Because of the two-day and five-day vehicle rotation systems, officials resorted to workarounds, and several senior officials ran into trouble. They were ousted. Once a rule is set it must be followed, but regulations should be limited to cases where they are truly necessary."
During the exchange, Policy Office Chief Kim Yong-beom emphasized there was no issue, calling it "a bureaucratic manual" and saying, "You may proceed as you've decided, Mr. President."
Meanwhile, Lee received a briefing from Vice Minister Moon that day on the supply and demand situation for energy resources such as crude oil. Moon explained that Korea's dependence on the Strait of Hormuz had fallen from 70% to 50%. Lee added, "We should view the structural risk as having eased considerably," and asked officials to "draw up measures to ensure it doesn't return to its original state."
