![Prime Minister Kim Min-seok speaks during a Cabinet meeting and emergency economy session at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno District, Seoul, on April 21. [Photo=Yonhap]](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2026/04/21/20260421115537243122.jpg)
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on April 21 ordered officials to closely check how 243 local governments are drafting supplementary budgets so that funding for 20 projects — including support for damage from high oil prices — can be executed quickly.
In opening remarks at the 17th Cabinet meeting and the eighth emergency economy headquarters meeting at the Government Complex Seoul, Kim said “speed is the lifeblood” of what he called a “wartime supplementary budget.”
He urged relevant ministries — including the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare — to ensure additional supply-stabilization steps scheduled for this week, including releasing stockpiled urea for vehicles and setting a fourth maximum price for oil.
With the deadline for a ceasefire between the United States and Iran approaching, Kim said uncertainty in the Middle East continues and stressed that the government will keep its current emergency economic response system firmly in place.
Kim also called on ministries to follow through on steps tied to President Lee Jae-myung’s trip to India and Vietnam, saying the government must keep working under the president’s leadership to overcome difficulties from the Middle East war and strengthen energy and supply-chain stability.
Kim said 217 of 341 key bills that should be handled in the first half — including the so-called materials, parts and equipment law and a bill to support victims of jeonse rental fraud — have yet to pass the National Assembly. He asked Cabinet members to keep meeting lawmakers in person to seek cooperation so the government does not miss what he called a legislative “golden time.”
Kim said the government began intensive safety inspections the previous day at about 32,000 facilities nationwide considered at risk of accidents, citing concerns that oversight could weaken ahead of local elections.
He instructed agencies to conduct thorough checks over the two-month inspection period and immediately carry out needed fixes, with special management for summer disaster-related sites such as underpasses, semi-basement homes and landslide-prone areas.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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