South Korean President Lee Jae Myung used a nationally televised press conference on Friday to draw a firm line on two of the most pressing foreign policy questions facing his government: Seoul will not deploy military forces in a way that risks entangling the country in the ongoing war involving Iran, but it is actively working to facilitate renewed dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
Speaking at Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office in Seoul, Lee repeated three times that there would be no troop deployment leading to conflict. "Let it be clear. There will be no dispatch of troops that will lead to involvement in a conflict. There will be no engagement or involvement in war," he said. At the same time, he acknowledged that Seoul is reviewing how to strengthen measures in the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which a large share of global oil supplies pass — to protect South Korean commercial shipping and crude oil imports. The country's Cheonghae naval unit, which has operated in the region in an anti-piracy capacity, has already expanded the scope of its mission. The question of a broader military deployment has proved deeply unpopular at home, with protests breaking out in recent weeks against any potential involvement. US President Donald Trump has publicly criticised Seoul for what he described as insufficient support and scaled back major joint military exercises between the two allies this summer, a move that unsettled the longstanding US-South Korea partnership.
On North Korea, Lee said he could not rule out the possibility of a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, describing himself as a "preliminary mediator" working to make such dialogue possible. "The resumption of North Korea-US dialogue would be far easier than resuming inter-Korean dialogue," he said, adding that any such talks would help create conditions for broader engagement on the Korean Peninsula. Trump has reportedly been pushing aides to arrange a meeting with Kim as early as autumn, though North Korean state media has so far remained largely silent on the overtures. Inter-Korean relations improved significantly in 2018 but collapsed after a summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi in February 2019 ended without agreement. Separately, a Seoul court this week ordered North Korea to pay approximately $32.5 million in damages for demolishing the Inter-Korean Liaison Office building in 2020, a facility that had been established to manage communication between the two sides.
The press conference — Lee's seventh since taking office in June last year — came as his approval ratings have fallen sharply into the mid-30 percent range, driven by concerns over rising housing prices and political controversies surrounding his own legal cases. Lee also used the occasion to renew a pledge not to seek a second consecutive term, which would in any case be prohibited under South Korea's constitution, which limits the presidency to a single five-year term. His Democratic Party holds a parliamentary majority, fuelling opposition allegations that a constitutional revision could be engineered to benefit him — accusations Lee rejected directly. His term is set to run until 2030.