South Korea reviewing military options for Hormuz, no decision made, official says

Seoul – South Korea is preparing to deploy military assets to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and aims to dispatch them before the end of the year, media reported late Thursday, citing government and military sources.

The reports in several South Korean media outlets said the government was preparing procedures to seek parliamentary approval for the deployment, including submitting a consent motion to parliament this month after a review by the Cabinet.

The government was considering options including sending a maritime patrol aircraft, a logistics support vessel or a mine detection and clearance unit, and had been discussing the scale and nature of a potential contribution with countries including the United States, the U.K. and France, the reports said.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Seoul had been discussing practical ways to contribute to freedom of navigation in the strait, but reports that the government had settled on a deployment were “different from the facts.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an August social media post that he had scaled back U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises in part because South Korea had declined to help the U.S. in the war against Iran.