As part of its campaign to reform the public sector, the government is pushing to scale back the overseas resource development business of state-owned corporations.

The government’s reform plan, which was disclosed Tuesday, calls for selling off unprofitable assets held by these companies. Yet it should take care not to undermine the nation’s fragile energy security.

Korean companies, both private and public, invested heavily in overseas resources under former President Lee Myung-bak. Amid high oil prices and international conflicts over rare earth minerals, Lee urged efforts to secure overseas resources to reduce the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks.

The investment drive was spearheaded by three state-run enterprises -- the Korea National Oil Corp., Korea Gas Corp. and Korea Resources Corp. Together, they invested 36 trillion won (about $30.7 billion) in overseas resource development projects. They are still engaged in a total of 91 exploration projects on foreign soil.

But these companies are in trouble now, as many of their projects are unprofitable due to the plunge in recent years in the prices of oil and other resources. The Board of Audit and Inspection found last year that the three companies recouped a mere 11.3 trillion won from their investments.

Due to unprofitable resource assets, the three companies have racked up deficits. As a result, their debts snowballed, with the combined debt they have to repay this year exceeding 8 trillion won.

Against this backdrop, the government plans to force the corporations to dispose of all of their overseas resource assets except those that are likely to yield profits in the future.

The reform plan also calls for the three corporations to cut their workforces by up to 30 percent and reorganize their business portfolios. It prescribes particularly harsh measures for Korea Resource Corp., whose debt ratio exceeded 6,900 percent last year.

The corporation will be forced to take its hands off of the overseas resource development business, focusing only on stockpiling mineral resources.

The government also plans to tell Korea Electric Power Corp., another heavy investor in resource development, to withdraw from its coal and uranium development projects overseas.

The reform plan is designed to improve the balance sheets of the energy corporations. But the government needs to be prudent in implementing it, as Korea is highly dependent on overseas resources.

The nation relies on imports for 96 percent of primary energy sources and 99 percent of major minerals. It ranked 101st in the energy security index compiled by the World Energy Council.

The government also needs to remember that resource development projects are highly risky and take a long time to yield profits.

It may be necessary to dispose some of the resource assets that were hastily acquired during the Lee administration. For other projects, the government needs to make decisions looking at least 10 to 20 years ahead. When the global economy begins to recover, competition among countries over energy resources will be rekindled.

In this regard, the government needs to strengthen, rather than weaken, the overseas resource development capabilities of state-run energy corporations. It should avoid eroding the nation’s fragile energy security.