South Korea’s dispatch of an assessment team to the United Arab Emirates should not be seen as a sign that Seoul has decided to send forces to the Strait of Hormuz, experts say, as the government weighs possible military support for US-led efforts amid the war with Iran, The Korea Herald reports.
The assessment came after the defence ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a team had travelled to the UAE over the weekend to examine security conditions and operational circumstances around the strait.
The US has asked South Korea for military support related to security in the Strait of Hormuz, but Seoul has stressed that no decision has been made.
“It is not true that the United States requested the deployment of our assets to the Strait of Hormuz with a specific deadline,” a defence ministry official said on Tuesday evening.
Yu Ji-hoon, an associate research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses, said the UAE visit showed that Seoul was seriously examining its options, but not that it had settled on deploying forces.
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