Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Monday instructed top government officials to carry out state affairs "normally" amid opposition parties' moves to restrain the increasingly assertive interim leader.

"If the government fails to normally carry out state affairs, which must be given due attention, citizens will have to bear the repercussions (from the failure) in the end," Hwang said during a regular meeting of ministers on state affairs.

"I call on each ministry to push to unwaveringly implement its respective tasks to make sure that citizens can rest assured and go about their own business as usual," he added.

Since Hwang took over as acting president on Dec. 9 following the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal centering on her longtime friend, he has been actively carrying out state affairs, including defense.

Last week, Hwang also showed his intention to exercise presidential authority to appoint new chiefs of rudderless public organizations to prevent any management vacuum.

Hwang's deep engagement in state affairs has unnerved opposition parties, which have criticized him for "going overboard" and called on him to stay low-key.

During Monday's meeting on state affairs, Hwang also called for all-out efforts to contain avian influenza (AI) that has ravaged chicken farms across the country since mid-November.

Hwang, in particular, stressed the need for central and provincial governments to make concerted efforts to tackle the fast-spreading virus.

Last week, a new type of AI was discovered, which put quarantine officials on alert.

The H5N8 strain of the bird flu was detected at a chicken farm located in Anseong, some 77 kilometers south of Seoul. The country has also suffered from the spread of the H5N6 strain, which is seen as more pathogenic than the H5N8 type.

"To prevent the spread of AI, I call on the related ministries to devise and implement multi-faceted, preemptive measures," he said. (Yonhap)