SEOUL: South Korea is reviewing a phased contribution to efforts to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said on Wednesday (May 13), signaling support steps short of military participation.<\/p>\n
Ahn told a press conference with South Korean reporters in Washington that he had conveyed Seoul\u2019s position at a meeting with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth on Monday.<\/p>\n
“We said at about this level that, fundamentally, we will participate as a responsible member of the international community and that we will review ways to contribute in a phased manner,” Ahn said in comments confirmed by Seoul’s ministry.<\/p>\n
Ahn said possible forms of phased support could include expressions of political support, personnel dispatches, information-sharing and the provision of military assets, while stressing that no detailed discussions had taken place on expanding South Korean troop involvement.<\/p>\n
“There was no deep discussion on something like specifically expanding our military\u2019s participation,\u201d he said, adding that any decisions would need to follow domestic legal procedures.<\/p>\n
Attack on South Korean ship<\/p>\n
The meeting between South Korean and US defence chiefs came a day after Seoul denounced an attack on a South Korean-flagged vessel near the Strait of Hormuz last week.<\/p>\n
South Korea’s presidential office strongly condemned the incident but said it was still investigating responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n
Ahn said he discussed the attack on the cargo ship with US officials, adding that Seoul would decide on any response only after the probe was complete.<\/p>\n
At the meeting on Monday, Hegseth said Washington expected allies to “stand shoulder-to-shoulder” amid rising global threats, citing US President Donald Trump’s authorisation of what he called Operation Epic Fury as evidence of the administration\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n
He praised Seoul’s plans to increase defence spending and assume greater responsibility for the security of the Korean Peninsula, calling it an example of alliance burden-sharing.<\/p>\n
Ahn told reporters Hegseth expressed understanding over South Korea\u2019s position on a conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the United States, and the goal of completing the transition at an early date.<\/p>\n
Washington had a “slightly different view” on the OPCON transfer process, Ahn said, adding that Seoul would continue efforts to persuade the United States.<\/p>\n
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration has signalled it aims to finalise the \u200cprocess \u2060during his term, which runs through to 2030, once the country meets a set of military capability conditions agreed with Washington.<\/p>\n
Ahn also said that the two sides exchanged views on other alliance issues including plans to build nuclear-powered submarines.<\/p>\n
He said there had been no discussion during the talks about a reduction in US forces stationed in South Korea or about the strategic flexibility of US troops stationed in the country. – Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL: South Korea is reviewing a phased contribution to efforts to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3576,112,33,116,1332],"class_list":{"0":"post-15417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seoul","8":"tag-role","9":"tag-seoul","10":"tag-south-korea","11":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","12":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}