Category: Korea-General Topics

One Korean Middle East expert is calling for Korea to send troops and ships to assist Gulf Arab allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz:

Korea risks undermining its defense export ambitions in the Middle East if it fails to support key Gulf partners during the current conflict, a Middle East expert warned, arguing that trust built in times of crisis, not just technology, determines future arms deals

Jang Ji-hyang, a principal fellow and director of the Center for Regional Studies at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said Seoul has focused too narrowly on its alliance with the United States and its role as a middle power, while overlooking its strategic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Korea Times

You can read the whole interview at the link, but something the Gulf Arab countries could use would be for Korea to send air defense units to help them defend against the drones they have been dealing with. This would show proactive support to the Gulf Arab countries while not being involved in active offensive operations against the Iranians if Korea wants to continue to hedge on this war.

As the war with Iran drags on more governments are going to have to implement fuel saving policies like this:

The government will strictly enforce a mandatory five-day vehicle rotation system for the public sector to respond to possible oil supply disruption amid persisting tensions in the Middle East while implementing additional energy-saving measures, the climate ministry said Tuesday. 

Starting Wednesday, the government will beef up monitoring of the public sector’s compliance with the license plate-based rationing system, under which cars are divided into five groups based on the last digit of their license plate numbers and each group is prohibited from driving on a designated weekday, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment. 

The system has been in place but run loosely. Electric and hydrogen vehicles are exempt from such restrictions.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is probably going to be happening across the world as the war with Iran drags on:

The government said Thursday it will implement a temporary fuel price cap system starting at midnight to help ease cost burdens amid supply concerns over the ongoing Middle East crisis, officials said Thursday. 

The government announced the plan at a task force meeting of ministers in charge of managing market prices, as domestic fuel prices have fluctuated since the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran late last month.

It marks the first time since 1997 that South Korea is enforcing the price ceiling system using a provision in the Petroleum Business Act that allows the industry minister to designate a maximum sales price when oil prices fluctuate sharply and threaten economic stability.

Under the price cap system, the government will set maximum prices for oil products South Korean oil refineries supply to gas stations and distributors, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. 

The ministry said it has decided to apply the price ceiling on supplies by oil refineries, not the retail prices at gas stations, considering that retail prices vary widely by region and business strategy and operating practices of gas stations.

The maximum price will be calculated by multiplying the weekly average supply prices of regular gasoline, diesel and lamp oil products, and the adjustment rate of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), added with related taxes. MOPS is a benchmark price for petroleum products across the Asia-Pacific region. 

The initial price cap will be set at 1,724 won (US$1.17) per liter for regular gasoline, 1,713 won per liter for diesel and 1,320 won per liter for lamp oil.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is some great advertising for Korea’s defense industry:

As Iranian forces launched retaliatory strikes across the Middle East following Saturday’s U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the United Arab Emirates turned to South Korea’s Cheongung-II surface-to-air missile system to help intercept incoming attacks, according to officials familiar with the matter. 

The system, sold to the UAE in recent years as part of Seoul’s expanding defense exports, has been integrated into the country’s broader air defense network. 

The interception marks the first combat use of a South Korean-made air defense weapon deployed overseas, underscoring the country’s expanding arms exports to the Middle East and offering a rare glimpse of the system’s performance in combat.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If you are looking to exchange dollars into Won now is the time to do it because the strengthening dollar may not last long once the war with Iran is over:

South Korean won briefly slid past the 1,500-per-dollar level on Tuesday, marking its first breach of the psychologically important level since 2009, as the greenback surged in value amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel military operations against Iran.

The won fell to nearly 1,506 won against the dollar at around 12:05 a.m. Wednesday (Seoul time), some 30 minutes after the New York Stock Exchange opened. It later recovered to trade back below the 1,500 mark.

The Korean currency hit 1,500 against the dollar for the first time since March 2009 when the world was reeling from the global financial crisis. 

In March 2009, the Korean won tumbled, approaching the 1,600-won-per-dollar level.

Analysts said that the won’s plunge this week was driven by the dollar’s rally amid fears that the U.S.-Israel operation could escalate into a broader regional war that could last longer than expected.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting Op-Ed in the Korea Times from a retired ROK Army general on what South Korea should learn from the Iran War:

(……..) There are clear parallels between Iran and North Korea. Both rely on missiles, coercive rhetoric and calibrated escalation to compensate for economic and conventional weakness. Both view nuclear capability as regime insurance. Both assume that external actors will ultimately avoid confrontation due to escalation risks.

The difference is that North Korea already possesses nuclear weapons. That reality does not guarantee safety. It merely raises the stakes.

The true stabilizing factor on the Korean Peninsula is not North Korea’s arsenal. It is the alliance structure anchored by South Korea, Japan and the United States. That structure imposes strategic restraint on all sides because any conflict would be immediate, catastrophic and alliance-driven.

But restraint depends on credibility.

Here is the uncomfortable point the Korean public must confront: the U.S.-ROK alliance is not indestructible. It is sustained by political will on both sides. If South Korea signals that the alliance is conditional, negotiable or politically expendable, Washington will not ignore that signal.

Great powers adjust. They always do.

Some in South Korea believe the alliance can be strategically “tested” — that Seoul can publicly distance itself from Washington, question joint exercises, dilute trilateral cooperation with Japan and still assume the American security guarantee remains unchanged. That is a dangerous illusion. (………)

If Washington perceives hesitation in Seoul, it will hedge. Hedging does not require abandonment. It requires adjustment — force posture changes, prioritization shifts, conditional commitments. And once strategic recalibration begins, it is rarely reversed quickly.

The first costs of miscalculation will not fall on Washington. They will fall on Seoul.

Progressives who advocate engagement with North Korea are not wrong to seek reduced tension. Dialogue is necessary. But dialogue that undermines deterrence credibility invites coercion. There is no historical example in which weakening alliance solidarity strengthened negotiating leverage with a nuclear-armed adversary.

Strategic autonomy is often invoked as justification for recalibrating ties with the United States. But autonomy without substitute capability is exposure. China will not defend South Korea against Northern aggression. Japan cannot replace American extended deterrence. An independent nuclear option would impose severe economic and diplomatic penalties on South Korea. (………)

Testing the alliance for domestic political leverage is not strategic sophistication. It is strategic gambling in an increasingly unforgiving environment.

Korea Times

You can read the whole thing at the link.