South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ruled out any Korean military role in the Iran war Friday, repeating the point three times during his remarks.
“There will be no involvement or intervention in the war,” Lee said.
He added that South Korea has held to that position since the war began, and that the country would only take the minimal steps needed to keep its tankers and cargo vessels moving safely through the region — a step short of the noncombat naval deployment to Hormuz Seoul had reportedly been weighing as recently as early September.
Friday’s statement is the clearest answer yet to a request US President Donald Trump has repeated for months — that he personally asked Lee to “give us a little hand with Iran,” and that Lee told him, “We’d rather not.” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry was notably more cautious back in August, saying it couldn’t confirm any such phone call had taken place in the terms Trump described.
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Read: Trump Touts “Very Good Relationship” With Kim Jong Un After South Korea Balks on Iran
Trump used Seoul’s refusal to justify scaling back the allies’ joint Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises in August, tying the decision to his own outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He’s repeated the complaint in interviews multiple times since, saying the US should “remember” South Korea’s response.
