South Korea has maintained a naval presence off the coast of Somalia in an anti-piracy mission, while resisting calls from U.S. President Donald Trump to play a more active military role in supporting Washington over the war in Iran, NBC News reported.
“There won’t be deployment that would involve or enter war. I can tell you that very clearly,” Lee said at a news conference. “We won’t deploy military assets in any form to that end.”
He added, however, that it “is also clear that we must do the minimum as other countries do to protect our commercial shipping and crude shipments, and also the safety of our people.”
Trump has criticized Seoul for what he called insufficient support for the Iran war and scaled back major joint military drills by the two countries’ armed forces this summer, a move that unsettled the U.S. ally.
Asked about progress in reaching an agreement with the United States on Seoul’s U.S. investment commitments under its trade deal with Washington, Lee said concern over the commercial viability of the package was the main sticking point.
MNA
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