Driving, work, school reschedule for ASEM

The government, convening a cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Lee Han-Dong on Thursday, decided to enforce a two-shift driving system and staggered working and schooling hour systems for four days, Oct. 18 through 21 for the conveniences and facilitation of the Asia-Europe Meeting slated for Oct. 20-21 in Seoul.

Under the decision, to be effective in accordance with Seoul metropolitan regulations, all private cars with odd numbers in the last digit of their license plates will be prohibited from Seoul on Oct. 19 and 21, and cars with even last digits will be forbidden Oct. 18 and 20. After the two days of guidance period Oct. 18-19, drivers violating the regulation will be punished with fines of 50,000 won.

The government also decided to adjust the work-hours for public officials and class hours for all levels of the schools during the ASEM conference, making it mandatory for the officials and students to attend their offices of schools before 8 a.m. or after 10 a.m.

A total of 815 foreign representatives to the ASEM talks and 1,501 foreign and Korean media reporters have applied for attendance at the conference or for news coverage, as of Thursday.