South Korea rules out Hormuz troop deployment as Lee backs US-North Korea talks
President Lee Jae Myung said the US wants dialogue with North Korea and confirmed South Korea will not deploy troops to the Iran war, as Seoul instead expands its naval unit's scope near the Strait of Hormuz.
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South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has said the United States wants dialogue with North Korea, and confirmed that Seoul will not send troops to take part in the war in Iran.
Lee said on Friday that South Korea would continue "preliminary coordination efforts" to facilitate talks between Washington and Pyongyang, and repeated three times that there would be no troop deployment to the Strait of Hormuz. "Let it be clear. There will be no dispatch of troops that will lead to involvement in a conflict. There will be no engagement or involvement in war," he said.
Seoul is instead widening the scope of its Cheonghae anti-piracy unit, which operates off Somalia, to waters south of Oman in the Arabian Sea, about 650 kilometres from the strait, adding mine-hunting equipment, an explosives disposal team and a P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft. Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul said on Monday the move was aimed at preparing for threats near Hormuz that "cannot be entirely ruled out". The plan needs parliamentary approval, with a motion due before the National Assembly later this week after cabinet endorsement on Tuesday.
Lee's remarks were reported by Al Jazeera from his Friday briefing, and the naval expansion was announced by Seoul last week and detailed by the defence minister on Monday, as reported by Yonhap. The two positions fit together: no ground troops in a war, but a naval unit moving closer to the strait it is meant to keep safe. What remains unclear is how far the unit's new mandate goes. The government has described the expansion as preparation for threats, not as participation in any US operation, and the parliamentary motion has not yet been tabled. The US-North Korea dialogue Lee spoke of is also still at the stage of preliminary coordination, with no meeting announced.
The balancing act is the story of Lee's presidency in miniature: keep the alliance with Washington close, keep South Korea out of a war its public does not want, and keep the sea lanes that carry its oil open. The Hormuz decision will be watched in Washington, which has pressed allies for more support, and in Tehran, which has warned against foreign military involvement. The first formal test comes this week, when the cabinet endorses the naval motion and sends it to parliament.