On September 18, President Lee Jae Myung said at a press conference that Korea “must take at least minimal action to protect our merchant ships, our oil supply routes, and the lives and safety of our people.” With this, he has effectively made the deployment of Korean forces to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz (and nearby waters) an established fact.

At the same time, he said, “There will be no deployment that involves or intervenes in the war.” This is an outright lie, meant to mock and deceive people. A sea that includes much of the territorial waters of a country at war is a battlefield, plain and simple. To send a “combat ship deployment unit” (the Ministry of Defense’s own term) there and call it “not intervening in the war” is something you can only say if you think people are fools. Below, I will take Lee’s lie apart point by point.

The Strait of Hormuz is the central battlefield of the Iran war

First, the Strait of Hormuz is the central battlefield of the Iran war right now. The United States is struggling to weaken Iran’s grip on the strait and reopen it. If tankers cannot break through Iran’s blockade and move freely through Hormuz, oil prices will shoot up, and Trump cannot afford the political danger this would create, at home and abroad.

This is why the US has ignored the Memorandum of Understanding and has been guiding merchant ships along the Omani coast on the southern side of the strait. It is also carrying out military operations to clear Iranian mines in the strait and to stop Iran from laying more. Recently, US Central Command bombed Iran to prevent it from laying new mines.

Iran, for its part, has no intention of giving up control of the strait. This war has shown how powerful that control is. Iran’s blockade of Hormuz shook the world economy and forced Trump to sign the Memorandum. Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said that Hormuz is “more important than dozens of nuclear bombs.”

Iran is fighting back against US efforts to weaken its control of the strait, for example by attacking merchant ships under US escort. Iran sees maintaining control over the strait as the key goal on which victory or defeat in this war depends.

In this situation, sending Korean forces to support freedom of navigation in Hormuz means helping the US in its effort to break Iran’s control of the strait. It means jumping into the central battlefield of the Iran war.

‘Strengthening’ the Cheonghae Unit’s mission means sending a warship to Hormuz

Second, Lee said his government is “reviewing ways to strengthen” the mission of the Cheonghae Unit, which is already deployed in the region. This means a warship could be sent to Hormuz.

The Cheonghae Unit’s ship, ROKS Wang Geon, is currently deployed in the Gulf of Aden. It is a 4,400-ton warship. This is very different from the “non-combat” role Lee talked about. If government only widens the Cheonghae Unit’s area of operations a little, then the Wang Geon can sail to Hormuz. This is exactly what the Moon Jae-in government did in January 2020, when it sent the unit to the strait by expanding its area of operations.

The US and Iran are conducting military operations in the Strait of Hormuz over the passage of oil tankers. To send a warship into those waters and claim it is “not a deployment that intervenes in or supports the war” is simply a trick exploiting the fact that most people do not know what kind of ship the Wang Geon is. And the idea that a Korean warship in Hormuz would operate on its own without working with the US military command is not realistic either.

The Red Sea is not separate from the Iran war

Third, Lee also named the Red Sea as one of the oil routes to be protected. But the Red Sea is not separate from the Iran war. The Red Sea has become dangerous recently because the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, took control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and blockaded the sea.

Two months ago, Saudi Arabia bombed a Houthi airport, targeting Houthi leaders. The leaders were on their way back from the funeral of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, who was killed in a US air strike. In addition to blockading the Red Sea, the Houthis struck the Saudi capital, Riyadh, yesterday (September 19). The Houthi offensive is part of the Iran war and also a continuation of the long war in Yemen.

All this shows that the US, which at first expected a quick and easy win in Iran, is now struggling and that the Middle East is slipping out of US control, becoming more dangerous. Türkiye, another major power in the region, has hinted that it may intervene militarily. That shows how serious things could become. Last month Türkiye signed the “Mecca Defense Alliance” (a joint defense pact) with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The Red Sea crisis will make the situation in Hormuz worse. The Red Sea has served as an alternative route for oil that could not pass through Hormuz, but now that route is blocked too. Even if Lee sends forces to the Red Sea, that area is connected to Hormuz, the main battlefield of the Iran war. And Korean forces sent there could later expand their operations into the Strait of Hormuz.

The ‘president vs. foreign affairs officials’ narrative only sows confusion within the anti-deployment movement

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun of the Lee government met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him that Korea “is willing to make a real contribution to restoring free passage through the Strait of Hormuz.” It goes without saying that this means helping the US take control of the strait away from Iran.

And yet Lee claims this is not a “troop deployment intervening in the war” but a deployment “to protect merchant ships, oil routes, and the Korean people.” This claim is a fraud. It is a cowardly act: joining a war of aggression while using the Korean people as an excuse. The Lee Jae Myung government calls itself a “government that upholds the sovereignty of the people.” It is really a government that mocks the people.

Some people say they “welcome the president’s announcement not to send troops into the war,” and they blame foreign affairs and security officials for undermining the president’s principled stance and creating confusion. But in a situation where Lee himself has treated the decision to deploy troops to Hormuz (and nearby waters) for the sake of freedom of navigation as an established fact, putting the blame on certain officials only sows confusion within the movement against the deployment.