South Korea has considered sending a maritime patrol aircraft to help protect shipping around the Strait of Hormuz, but no decision has been made and the country will not take part in combat, national security adviser Wi Sung-lac told lawmakers in Seoul on Thursday. The United States has asked Seoul for military support in the strait, and President Trump has criticized South Korea's backing for the war with Iran as insufficient; the Defense Ministry says any expansion of its naval mission in the region would serve existing anti-piracy duties, not that request, and Wi said no when asked whether the idea was meant to answer Washington, while confirming that Seoul is consulting the United States on how to contribute. Seoul newspapers, citing unnamed sources, have reported that the option would attach the plane to the Navy's Cheonghae anti-piracy unit and widen its operating area toward the Gulf of Oman; Wi did not say where a plane would go. A ruling-party adviser says such a plan is "not at all" a deployment to Hormuz; the lawmaker who questioned Wi argues it is a new wartime role that could make Korean forces a target.
What Wi said
Questioned at the National Assembly's annual audit of the presidential office, Wi said, "We are at the stage of reviewing various options, and nothing has been decided," according to Edaily. "Something like a patrol aircraft came up as an option and was reviewed. It has not been decided." Seoul is reviewing how to "contribute to and play a role in international solidarity for free passage in Hormuz," he said, but "in line with the president's guidance, we hold to the principle of not taking part in combat or acts of war." Asked whether Washington was still pressing, he said consultations with the United States are under way but there was "no particular new development." He did not say which aircraft, what mission or where it would be based. (Quotations from Wi, Kim Joon-hyung, Kim Byung-joo and the People Power Party are Profoundd's translations from Korean.)
Kim Joon-hyung of the Rebuilding Korea Party, who put the questions, said widening the unit's area from the Gulf of Aden to waters such as the Gulf of Oman "is not an expansion but a new role." In wartime, he argued, safe operating areas are hard to define, so even a noncombat mission could be seen as a deployment by a roundabout route or draw attacks on Korean forces. When Kim asked whether Wi had proposed the expansion to answer Washington while avoiding the risks of a deployment, Wi said no and pointed to Japan's patrol aircraft operating from Djibouti. Kim replied that other countries' existing missions differ from South Korea "newly expanding its role during a war."
The Cheonghae option
The Cheonghae unit, deployed off Somalia since 2009, currently consists of a 4,400-ton destroyer, a helicopter, up to three small boats and no more than 320 personnel. Its parliamentary mandate expires December 31. The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported on October 15, without naming its sources, that the government is considering extending the operating area to the Gulf of Oman and adding one patrol aircraft in the renewal it sends to parliament. The Defense Ministry told Reuters that nothing had been decided and that piracy in the Gulf of Aden was up sharply from a year earlier, and it says any expansion would serve existing anti-piracy and ship-protection duties rather than answer the U.S. request. The International Maritime Bureau, a shipping-industry body that tracks attacks at sea, reported this month a rise in Somali piracy this year, with Somali pirates responsible for all eight hijackings it recorded worldwide in the first nine months of 2026 and 94 percent of crew taken hostage, though it said the attacks are "not comparable in scale or reach" to the 2008-2013 Somali piracy era; worldwide, its 51 reported incidents were the fewest for the period since 1992. In 2020, Seoul used a clause allowing missions to protect Korean nationals to widen the unit's area toward Hormuz without new parliamentary approval; the Korea Times reports it is unclear whether the government would rely on that again. The Navy has six P-8A Poseidon aircraft, in service since July 2025.
Kim Byung-joo, a Democratic Party lawmaker and the president's special adviser on defense, told MBC radio on October 16 that the motion is expected in November, that "it is not at all a deployment to Hormuz" and that "nothing has been made concrete yet on the operating area." He said piracy around the Gulf of Aden had risen "more than threefold" from before. Asked about criticism that piracy is a weak reason for sending a patrol plane, he said the danger to South Korea's energy security around the Gulf of Oman had been steadily rising since the war began, the news site Pressian reported. The military's worry, he said, is that the unit's own defenses are "very weak," and he believes the ministry wants to strengthen them.
Pressure from Washington, and the line on combat
The Defense Ministry confirmed in September that the United States had asked for military support related to Hormuz security, the Korea Herald reported; the ministry said it was "not true" that Washington had set a deadline, and the Pentagon did not answer the paper's question about one. Trump scaled back joint military exercises in August, saying it was partly because South Korea had declined to help in the Iran war, Baird Maritime reported. The Strait of Hormuz carried 61 percent of South Korea's crude oil imports last year.
In early September, the presidential office said its review covered combat, noncombat and search missions, the Korea Times reported. On September 18, Lee narrowed that: "There will be no deployment that involves or intervenes in the war. I can state that clearly." He added, "Like other countries, we clearly need to carry out minimum activities to protect our commercial vessels, oil shipping routes and the lives and safety of our citizens," and said he would not send combat troops or put Korean service members under foreign command in a way that could endanger them. Iran's Foreign Ministry warned in September that any Korean military participation would be treated as support for U.S. "aggression."
The objections
South Korea's constitution requires National Assembly consent to send armed forces abroad. Several Democratic Party lawmakers have argued that even noncombat forces in Hormuz could amount to joining the U.S. war, the Korea Herald reported, and the prospect has drawn street protests. The main conservative opposition, the People Power Party, was close to conditional support in September, CBS NoCut News reported: a party leadership official told the outlet that "it is absolutely not that we must deploy unconditionally," and floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said the government should come to the National Assembly and "transparently disclose" the state of the strait and of relations with Washington, calling the timing a clear missed opportunity. The party's leader, Jang Dong-hyuk, has accused the government of delaying a decision despite the U.S. request, saying his party had urged since March that a security contribution be considered and that "had we decided early and cooperated at an appropriate level, it would not have come to this." Analysts quoted in the Korean and U.S. press say such a contribution would matter more politically than militarily. Shin Jong-woo of the Korea Defense and Security Forum told the Korea Times that a patrol plane or support ship "are not assets that would turn the situation around in the war" and that their meaning would be mainly symbolic. Kim Ju-hyung of the Security Management Institute told Defense News that "Seoul is in a difficult position because it has limited room to reject a U.S. request outright."
The strait remains contested. On Thursday, Iran's navy said tankers using a U.S.-promoted southern route had struck mines, and the British military's maritime trade office reported a tanker hit by a projectile, with no injuries reported. Iran insists ships use only northern routes it authorizes.
This article reflects reporting through Friday, October 30, 2026. Sources: Edaily and Daily Hankook, October 29; Kyunghyang Shinmun, October 16; the Korea Times, October 16, September 18 and September 4; Reuters via Al-Monitor, October 16; the Korea Herald, September 9; Defense News, September 14; Baird Maritime, September 9; Reuters via Al-Monitor, October 29; CBS News, October 29; the International Maritime Bureau, October 15; Pressian, October 16; CBS NoCut News, September 8.
