Lee Jae-myung: South Korea Will Not Send Forces to the Strait of Hormuz

Lee Jae-myung, the President of South Korea, announced on Friday in Seoul that the United States is seeking dialogue with Pyongyang and emphasized that South Korea will not send any forces for military intervention in the Iran war to the Strait of Hormuz.

International Dialogue and Relations with North Korea

Lee stated, "Trump is clearly seeking dialogue with North Korea." He added that while such talks are uncertain, they are not impossible. The Seoul government is continuing preliminary coordination efforts to facilitate dialogue between North Korea and the United States.

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Trump, who is seeking to revive a relationship he claims to have established with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, announced his intention to meet with Kim later this year. He said, "It is important to have a good relationship with Kim" and added that Pyongyang now possesses 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons.

Positioning Against Tensions and Domestic Protests

According to assessments from Seoul, North Korea has about 80 to 120 nuclear warheads. While North Korea has received vital support from Russia in recent years, the country has clearly not responded to Trump's statements.

Relations between the two Koreas peaked in 2018, but deteriorated after the collapse of talks between Kim and Trump in February 2019. Yesterday, a court in Seoul ordered North Korea to pay approximately $32.5 million in fines for the explosion of the inter-Korean liaison office building in 2020.

South Korea is also working to strengthen its relations with other regional partners. The first historic presidential meeting between Seoul and five Central Asian countries was held on Wednesday, aimed at creating deeper economic engagement with Russia's allied nations.

Despite increasing pressure from the United States, Lee Jae-myung emphasized three times that South Korea will not send any forces to the Strait of Hormuz, stating, "It must be clear that there will be no deployment of forces that could lead to conflict. We will have no involvement or participation in the war."

The South Korean government has faced widespread opposition in South Korean society due to this stance, as protests against the potential deployment of South Korean military forces to the Strait of Hormuz have been held in recent weeks. Lee also added that South Korea will carry out "the minimum necessary activities" to protect its commercial vessels and oil routes.

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