The government has drawn up its first comprehensive mid- to long-term resource security plan at the whole-of-government level since the Special Act on National Resource Security took effect in February last year. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy finalized the First Basic Plan for Resource Security on the 23rd, setting a goal of cutting Korea's reliance on Middle Eastern crude oil, now at 70%, to 50% by 2035. It also aims to lower dependence on any single country for natural gas to below 30%. The plan calls for expanding oil stockpiling facilities and increasing the number of critical minerals under management from 38 to 51. Extending resource procurement and stockpiling into a security question tied to national survival is a belated but appropriate response.
The recent disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz laid bare how vulnerable an energy import structure concentrated on the Middle East and on specific shipping routes can be. What matters is how much the concentration of supply sources is actually reduced. Simply adding more countries as crude oil suppliers is not enough. Only when crude grades, contract structures and transport routes are also diversified can the country properly withstand an unforeseen crisis. It must also assess how quickly replacement volumes can be brought in when passage through a particular sea lane is blocked or an oil-producing country halts exports.
For critical minerals as well, the task goes beyond adding trading partners to building a supply chain that runs from exploration through development to processing. Even if ore is secured, the risk remains if smelting and refining are concentrated in a single country. Where investment periods are long and the risk of failure is high enough that individual companies cannot bear it, the government should consider priming the pump through funding support and risk sharing.
Resource diversification strategies have in fact been a staple offering of every administration. The government announced in 2020 and again in 2024 that it would aggressively pursue diversification of import sources, citing instability in the Middle East. But once the administration changed and soaring oil prices stabilized, such efforts typically fizzled out. Overseas resource development projects pursued under the Lee Myung-bak administration were branded as accumulated malpractice by a successor government and either sold off at bargain prices or halted. This plan runs through 2035. Over those 10 years, the administration will change twice. In the end, unless annual implementation targets and indicators for dependence and inventory levels are spelled out, the possibility cannot be ruled out that this plan, too, ends up as an empty roadmap. Carefully designed safeguards are needed so that resource security strategy — a plan for the century — is not shaken by shifts in the international landscape or changes in government.
