South Korea has been in trouble again lately. China did not sit idly by, but acted decisively. China has suspended the export process for a batch of AdBlue solution, a move that has put pressure on South Korea. According to South Korea**, a batch of urea for vehicles that has passed the export review was stopped by the General Administration of Customs of China during the customs clearance process. As a result, the shipment was stranded at the loading stage, triggering an emergency meeting of South Korean ministries to discuss a response. At the same time, South Korea** has also stepped in to demand an explanation from China. Before South Korea made a request, they had already found a pretext for China's actions. It is reported that South Korea said that China's call for the export clearance process of urea for parking is due to domestic tension and has nothing to do with political factors. This is clearly the rhetoric of the South Korean side. China*** only made a brief response to this, asking South Korea to find relevant departments to solve the problem.
South Korea's move sought to tarnish China's image by characterizing its actions as informal restrictions to meet domestic demand. China's response was witty. They did not explain, but directly asked South Korea to go to the relevant departments to block South Korea's smear remarks. It is clear that South Korea's attempt will not succeed, and China's response can be called ingenious. Recently, especially after Yoon Suk-yeol's repeated China-related remarks, there have been doubts about his actions. Although we have called on Yoon Suk-yeol not to follow suit, now he is telling South Korea not to follow suit. What exactly did he do?Why is it that just a small piece of AdBlue can cause so much alarm in South Korea?Actually, it's not complicated. In South Korea, AdBlue is regarded as an "industrial pearl" and has a wide range of uses, including fertilizers, plastics, dyes, pharmaceuticals and military industries.
The name AdBlue also reveals its role as a necessity to help diesel vehicles meet emission standards. According to reports, there are currently more than 4 million diesel vehicles in South Korea that require AdBlue to be used. In short, a lack of AdBlue would result in more than 4 million diesel vehicles in South Korea not functioning properly, not including the impact in other areas. In addition, urea is also one of the raw materials for the manufacture of military TNT, and South Korea is one of the main leading parties to NATO ammunition. Currently, NATO's ammunition mainly goes to Israel and Ukraine, so the state of ammunition ** in South Korea also affects other countries. For South Korea, the inability of diesel vehicles to operate is only a minor problem, and the bigger problem is that if there is a problem with ammunition**, South Korea will face a serious safety risk. However, Yoon's actions don't seem to have much practical effect. South Korea has long followed the United States, but it has not achieved satisfactory results.
Now, even if you ask the United States for help, it is difficult to solve the problem of AdBlue for vehicles. It is worth noting that China has a dominant position on this issue. According to reports, South Korea's current dependence on Chinese urea has reached 976%。While South Korea could consider other options, such as Russia, India, the United States, and Brazil, Russia is unlikely to be an option due to South Korea's supply of ammunition to Ukraine. In addition, India's own needs are already large, and the United States is unlikely to compromise its own interests in order to meet South Korea's needs. South Korea needs to find a new way out as soon as possible. In fact, we have been quite tolerant of South Korea this time. Looking back on 2021, South Korea has had a nightmare. At that time, China implemented export control on urea, which led to South Korea falling into the dilemma of "urea shortage" and "logistics network almost paralyzed". And this time South Korea was given at least three months to react.
To be clear, our actions are not directed against any particular country, both in 2021 and now. However, Yoon Suk-yeol would do well to think about what to do next, given that South Korea's inventory is only enough to last for three months.