Media reports are emerging that the Lee Jae-myung government is preparing to deploy troops to the Strait of Hormuz.

On 3 September, several outlets, citing government sources, reported that the government would soon submit a motion for consent to the deployment to the National Assembly. Shortly afterward, the Blue House denied this, saying “nothing has been decided.”

Yet the deployment plans and procedural discussions being reported are quite specific. Reports even say that the government has conveyed to the US its intention to send the new logistics support ship Soyang and P-8A maritime patrol aircraft.

Two weeks ago, the government had already admitted it was reviewing a “military contribution” to the Iran war.

Government officials say the deployment to the Strait of Hormuz “takes into account contributing to regional stability and the national interest.”

But the instability in the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding region is, above all, the result of the war that the US and Israel launched at the end of last February.

Even now, with that war dragging on for more than half a year, Trump is straining every nerve to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran. To this end he is bombing Iran and imposing economic sanctions, and the danger of the war escalating once again is growing.

The Lee government’s deployment amounts to lending a hand to this. However much it invokes justifications like “protecting merchant shipping” or “defensive purposes,” it does not change the fact that the deployment aids Trump’s war. Far from “regional stability,” it is like handing gasoline to an arsonist.

The same goes for the talk of “non-combat assets.” A logistics support ship supplies fuel, ammunition and other materiel to fleets in operation, and a patrol aircraft is an aircraft that monitors enemy movements. Classifying these weapons as “non-combat assets” is therefore deceptive.

Moreover, even a deployment of “non-combat troops” can be a step toward sending combat troops, on the pretext of protecting those very troops or the like. When the Roh Moo-hyun government sent troops to aid the US war on and occupation of Iraq, it too dispatched “non-combat troops” (the Seohee and Jema units) before sending combat troops (the Zaytun Division).

For the Lee government to justify all this in the name of the “national interest” is the repugnant logic of seeking to profit by taking part in turning a faraway land into a battlefield.

What is more, there are now signs that the Iran war is becoming entangled with the war in Ukraine, another war Trump has failed to end. And the more breathing room a beleaguered Trump is given, the more he will be inclined to undertake dangerous adventures to defend US hegemony.

The deployment will therefore help make the whole world more dangerous. Nor will it bring any benefit to ordinary people in South Korea. We cannot forget the late Kim Sun-il, who in 2004 cried out, “President Roh Moo-hyun, I want to live.” What benefit did ordinary people ever gain from the Roh government’s deployment?

The reports on the Lee government’s deployment plans come as Trump is courting Kim Jong-un. The Lee government may be calculating that it can aid Trump’s war in the hope of improving inter-Korean relations.

But Trump’s overtures to Kim Jong-un are merely a card he is toying with in the interests of US imperialism. Since they are aimed at allowing the US to concentrate on its confrontation with China, they can neither bring peace to the Korean Peninsula nor serve as a lever for peace in Asia.

Lee Jae-myung government: No troops to the Strait of Hormuz!

No to the US-Israeli war on Iran!

4 September 2026

Workers’ Solidarity