South Korea strengthens vehicle restriction measures, public agency vehicles limited to odd-even license plate restrictions

As the Middle East conflict situation continues and energy supplies become increasingly tight, the South Korean government announced on April 1 that it would further strengthen energy-saving measures. On the same day, the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Environment of South Korea said that starting from April 8 local time, the restriction on public agency vehicles—originally “tail-number (license plate last digit) restriction on weekdays”—will be upgraded to the stricter “odd-even license plate restriction.” Although private vehicles will still remain under voluntary restrictions, tail-number restriction measures will be forcibly implemented at about 30,000 public parking lots nationwide.

According to a plan released by the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Environment of South Korea, approximately 11,000 entities—including the central government, local governments, public institutions, and national and public schools—as well as about 1.3 million official and civil-servant commuting vehicles will be subject to the odd-even system. About 30,000 paid public parking lots operated by public agencies (about 1,000,000 parking spaces) will implement tail-number restrictions on weekdays, with different tail-number vehicles allowed to park from Monday to Friday. If private vehicles do not meet the tail-number restriction rules, they will also be unable to enter public parking lots.

Vehicles for people with disabilities, pregnant women, those carrying preschool children, as well as electric vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles, and some livelihood vehicles are not subject to the restriction. (CCTV News)