A gas field discovered in the East Sea in 1988, with a size of 45 million barrels. /Courtesy of Korea National Oil Corporation

The Korea National Oil Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation, and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation, among other energy and resource public organizations, will become the key resource stockpiling obligation institutions.

On the 14th, the government approved a decree to establish obligations for stockpiling key resources by energy public institutions, along with a basic plan for resource security and its implementation regulations during a cabinet meeting.

The parent law of the implementation regulations, the Special Act on National Resource Security, includes measures to effectively respond to crises in energy and resource security amid expanding global energy and resource uncertainties. The law was promulgated on Feb. 6 of last year and is set to take effect on the 7th of next month. The approved regulations include the structure and operational procedures of the resource security control tower methods for operating early warning systems for resource security crises management methods for the supply and demand of key resources strategies for responding to resource security crises.

With the enactment of this decree, energy and resource public institutions are required to stockpile key resources. In emergency situations, the scope of institutions with temporary additional or new stockpiling obligations, along with stockpiling amounts per institution, will be separately announced.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the responsible department, must establish a basic resource security plan and an implementation plan every five years. A new resource security council will serve as the national resource security policy control tower, with the Minister serving as the chairperson.

The government also stated that a national resource security diagnosis and evaluation should be conducted every five years to assess comprehensive national crisis response capabilities.

In the event of a resource security crisis or concerns about its occurrence, warning levels can be issued based on the severity and impact of the crisis, categorized into four stages: 'concern, caution, alert, and severe.' Conditions and procedures for issuing emergency response measures for the management of individual supplies, such as orders for the importation of crucial overseas development resources, stockpiled resource release and usage measures, and sales price adjustments for key resources, have also been stipulated.

An official from the Ministry noted, "With the approval of the implementation decree for the Special Act on National Resource Security at the cabinet meeting, our country's system for preparing and responding to resource security crises will be further strengthened."