Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice said on the 11th that, as part of the response to the Middle East situation, he ordered 18 district prosecutors' offices nationwide to fully activate "task forces dedicated to people's livelihoods and price stability."
The Minister said on his social media (SNS) that "the supplementary budget bill to respond to the Middle East situation passed the National Assembly," adding, "The Ministry of Justice urgently added a little over 700 million won for investigations dedicated to stabilizing people's livelihoods and prices."
The Minister said, "We will sternly crack down on price-fixing and manipulation cartels," adding, "At a time when people's lives are threatened by global instability and a surge in oil prices, acts of exploiting the community's difficulties to reap windfall profits and disrupt market order are antisocial crimes that can never be tolerated."
Accordingly, the Minister said, "With the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Anti-Corruption Department as the control tower, we have taken steps to fully activate 'task forces dedicated to people's livelihoods and price stability' at 18 district prosecutors' offices nationwide."
The Minister said, "Just as prosecutors recently uncovered and indicted a 9 trillion won price-fixing scheme involving essentials such as sugar and flour, the task forces will track and strictly punish oil price-fixing, local entrenched corruption, and unfair transaction crimes that infringe on people's lives."
The Minister said a 70 million won budget was also allocated to proactively respond to foreign investors' investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims. The Minister said, "This is to prevent at an early stage lawsuits like those recently won involving Lone Star, Elliott, and Schindler," adding, "We will create an environment where our emergency-response measures can be protected internationally."
The Minister added, "We will put top priority on stabilizing people's livelihoods, the purpose of this supplementary budget, and concentrate all our capabilities to ensure that unjust price increases do not worsen the public's hardship."