Kim Han-jung: "Unable to Predict Urea Solution Supply Shortage... Need to Review Global Strategic Supply Chains"

Kim Han-jung, Chair of the National Crisis Overcoming Committee, is delivering opening remarks at the National Crisis Overcoming K-New Deal Committee Childcare Task Force Party-Government Meeting held at the National Assembly on the 23rd. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 7th, Kim Han-jung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, posted on social networking service (SNS), “There are concerns about a logistics crisis due to the supply shortage of urea solution, which is entirely imported from China. Urea solution is an essential material for the operation of 2 million diesel vehicles,” adding, “No one predicted a supply shortage crisis because it is a cheap and common material.”

Sharing a video of the comprehensive policy questioning at the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Committee on the 5th, Rep. Kim said, “I urged Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum not only on the urea solution issue but also to inspect the supply chain of important industrial materials, to create a national database (DB) of vulnerable external materials, and to prepare countermeasures. I also called for meticulous strategic measures for South Korea to cope with the increasing uncertainty of the global economy amid the US-China confrontation.”

He continued, “I requested the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Public Procurement Service to thoroughly inspect essential materials that are highly globally dependent and vulnerable to external environmental changes, and to upgrade and update the government stockpile DB,” adding, “The global strategic supply chain issue is a strategic task requiring mid- to long-term responses.” Rep. Kim said, “South Korea needs a strategy to withstand tensions and shocks in international political and economic conditions,” and emphasized, “This is an era where the economy cannot be separated from security, and security is the economy.”

He also mentioned, “There is a need to boldly reorganize the dispersed national research institutes into a think tank that integratively researches national strategy,” adding, “The post-pandemic period may not be a spring but the beginning of a new winter. The government must maintain vigilance and tension in the era of logistics wars and supply chain wars.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party held an emergency inspection meeting on urea solution in the afternoon, chaired by presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, and decided to form a related task force (TF) to respond to the urea solution shortage crisis. Rep. Lee Hak-young is expected to serve as the chairman.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.