Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said South Korea's position is to take part in international cooperation, when asked about the possibility of deploying troops to the Strait of Hormuz.
Cho made the remarks to reporters at Incheon International Airport on the 17th, before departing for the United States, while adding that "our position has not yet been decided and we are reviewing it in light of various factors." He said the country's stance is to join international cooperation while giving priority to the safety of Korean nationals and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
Cho is scheduled to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on the 18th, covering a range of issues including Korean investment in the United States, the Hormuz deployment and the Korean Peninsula. On the delay in announcing the first project under the U.S. investment plan, Cho said he understood it was intended to make procedural matters more certain. "It is not that there is a difference of opinion between Seoul and Washington, but that domestic procedural issues need to be settled," he said.
The same day, First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo attended a plenary meeting of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. Asked by Rep. Park Sung-joon of the Democratic Party of Korea whether the government could make an autonomous decision while President Donald Trump was pressuring allies on multiple fronts over the Strait of Hormuz, Park said it was Korea's own decision to make, one that must be based on the national interest. "No specific decision has been made on the deployment issue," she said, adding that the government needs to examine ways to contribute from the standpoint of national interests such as safety in the Strait of Hormuz and supply chains.
When Rep. Woo Won-shik of the Democratic Party said military intervention was an entirely separate matter from the Korea-U.S. alliance, Park said the government was looking at the issue primarily in terms of stable navigation, securing energy supply routes, and the safety of Korean residents, nationals and merchant ships in the region, rather than in terms of relations with Washington. Some observers read the situation as indicating the government is considering sending non-combat personnel or providing technical support rather than a troop deployment.
