A UN mandate and a global coalition are required before Seoul joins Trump’s mission to reopen the strait, officials indicate
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenPark Chan-kyongPublished: 2:30pm, 5 May 2026When a South Korean cargo ship exploded and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz late on Monday, Donald Trump wasted no time declaring what he thought it meant.“Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!” the US president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, invoking the incident as fresh justification for Seoul to send naval forces to the embattled waterway.
Seoul’s answer, for now, has been a polite but firm no – or at least, not yet.
AdvertisementThe explosion occurred aboard a Panama-flagged vessel operated by HMM, one of South Korea’s largest shipping firms, at around 8.40pm Seoul time on Monday.Vessels are pictured anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast on Monday. Photo: ISNA/AFP
The ship was anchored in waters near the United Arab Emirates with 24 crew members aboard: six South Koreans and 18 foreign nationals.
