President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that the country will preemptively activate the government-wide emergency response system to address potential instability arising from escalating Middle East tensions.

At a cabinet meeting, Lee warned that the expanding and protracted Middle East conflict was posing a risk to the supply and demand of crude oil and natural gas. He cited the International Energy Agency, which has labeled the crisis the most significant threat to energy security in history and warned of its impact on the global economy.

He said that it was difficult to predict when and where problems may arise, given that petrochemical products are indispensable to daily lives. The emergency response system, he said, aims to address a grave crisis that could affect people's livelihood and the overall economy, and he ordered officials to devise specific measures to alleviate the impact.  

Earlier this month, the country introduced a so-called petroleum price ceiling system – for the first time since oil price liberalization in 1997 – under which the government sets a legal upper limit on the selling price of oil products.

The wholesale price cap, which applies to the price at which oil refiners supply products to gas stations, was first set on March 13 and will be adjusted every two weeks. The second public notice of oil price caps is scheduled for Friday. 

The president asked people to cooperate in overcoming the crisis by joining the energy-saving movement, ordering public institutions to implement the one-in-five vehicle rotation system, which restricts vehicle operation one day a week based on the last digit of license plate numbers.