A parliamentary interpellation session takes place at the National Assembly on Monday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)
A parliamentary interpellation session takes place at the National Assembly on Monday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)

South Korea's industry minister on Monday said that an industry-wide shutdown is unlikely even in the worst-case scenario of the Middle East crisis, assuring that secured crude oil and liquefied natural gas levels are enough to power the manufacturing plants.

"I'm confident such a situation would not happen," Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said during a parliamentary interpellation session on economic topics at the National Assembly.

His remarks came in response to Rep. Lee Un-ju of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who asked about the possibility of South Korea's industry grinding to a halt due to a shortage of key materials.

Kim said the government is monitoring crude oil supply levels daily and continuing to explore possible alternative import routes, but refrained from elaborating further due to the sensitivity of the matter. The Industry Ministry stated earlier that it had secured 50 million barrels of alternative crude oil for April alone.

Kim added that South Korea had already secured sufficient natural gas to last until the end of the year, adding that the country will push to reduce its reliance on gas in power generation.

The remarks came as South Korea was poised to pass a 26 trillion won ($17.3 billion) extra budget bill later this week to combat setbacks in South Korea's economy amid the prolonged conflict in the Middle East, while seeking alternative routes to buy energy sources.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol also said the extra budget planning was based on Seoul's assumption that the Middle East conflict could last for three more months, in response to Democratic Party Rep. Oh Gi-hyoung's inquiry.

Amid speculations from the conservative People Power Party saying the extra budget is a vote-buying scheme ahead of the June local election and includes provisions more beneficial to Chinese companies, Budget Minister Park Hong-keun said, answering Oh's question, that the government would fight to curb the spread of fake news about the extra budget plan.


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