Trump has recently stepped up public pressure on the South Korean government over Iran. On Jan. 16, he said he "asked the Korean president whether he was willing to join efforts to denuclearize Iran, but they said 'No thanks!'" At the time, the presidential office said it was "closely discussing substantive and military contribution measures with the U.S. side," and roughly 20 days later a specific troop deployment emerged as a possibility.
With Trump gradually raising the pressure, the government may have felt burdened by the prospect of being the only country left out while other allies act. Above all, because the Strait of Hormuz contribution issue is intertwined with economic and trade negotiations, Seoul appears to have concluded it could not simply ignore Trump's request. A senior presidential official avoided directly answering whether recent security and economic negotiations with the U.S. were struggling over the Hormuz deployment issue, but said inter-Korean-U.S. security talks were "not in a state where they can proceed easily."
He also said, "Talks that had been proceeding under the joint fact sheet were temporarily stalled early this year before being restored in May," adding, "Now, tied to various other issues, progress is again not easy." On U.S. demands for semiconductor investment, he said, "It is true that semiconductors are also a subject of discussion."
The presidential office said, however, that the matter remains at the stage of internal government discussion, with no specific consultations yet held with the National Assembly. When the deployment issue came up during a meeting with civic group representatives that day, President Lee Jae-myung reportedly said nothing had progressed and that the question of direct involvement in a war should be distinguished from that of securing safe passage for South Korean merchant vessels.
The presidential office also stressed that "military contribution" should not be interpreted as limited to combat situations. The senior official said, "Military contribution includes participating in combat, but there are various options such as non-combat and search operations. We are reviewing these comprehensively." The government is reportedly giving priority to options involving non-combat assets such as maritime patrol aircraft and logistics support ships.
Meanwhile, opposition voices have emerged within the ruling bloc immediately after the possibility of a Hormuz deployment surfaced, suggesting a difficult path to National Assembly ratification. Rep. Lee Ki-heon of the Democratic Party of Korea said on social media that day, "If a request for consent to the deployment comes to the National Assembly, I will not consent to the Hormuz deployment in order to defend the national interest and constitutional values." Kim Joon-hyung, floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, stressed, "A matter involving the lives of citizens and our young people must not be handled by leaking, testing the waters and then denying it."
