South Korea decides to send a P-8A, a bomb-disposal team and unmanned mine-clearing assets closer to the Strait of Hormuz, pending National Assembly approval

South Korea has decided to move its Cheonghae naval unit from the Gulf of Aden closer to the Strait of Hormuz and to reinforce it with a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, a bomb-disposal team and unmanned mine-clearing assets. The revised mandate was approved on the morning of Thursday, November 5 at a vice-ministerial meeting in Seoul and, after approval by the cabinet and President Lee Jae Myung next week, will go to the National Assembly. Without parliamentary consent, the country’s law permits neither the dispatch of troops abroad nor the expansion of an existing mission. We earlier reported on Seoul weighing the deployment.

Double the range, 650 kilometres from Hormuz

Under the new plan the unit’s maximum operating radius will roughly double, reaching 1,930 kilometres. The unit will now operate as far as international waters south of Oman, near the port of Duqm, about 650 kilometres from the Strait. At the core of the force is the 4,400-tonne destroyer Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin, which sailed from Busan in October for the 49th rotation of the mission.

The destroyer will be joined by a P-8A with a crew of 45, a 30-member bomb-disposal team and two sets of mine-clearing assets with unmanned surface vessels and underwater vehicles, as well as remotely operated underwater robots. The personnel ceiling rises from 320 to 395. The aircraft is expected to operate from Djibouti, and consultations with that country will begin once the parliamentary process starts. The new mandate, valid until December 31, 2027 if approved, will add to the unit’s tasks support for efforts to restore freedom of navigation on international sea lanes.

The limits Seoul sets

The Ministry of National Defense insists the mission remains non-combat, under exclusively South Korean command by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and limited to self-defence. “We will under no circumstances participate in or intervene in the war,” an official said. The P-8A is barred from monitoring Iranian territory, Iranian territorial waters and the interior of the Strait. The ministry cites as the main reason a surge in piracy off Somalia, with 36 incidents since the start of the year against 11 in 2025, partly because multinational naval forces have turned towards the Red Sea and Hormuz.

The mine-clearing capabilities, however, also serve long-term goals. Officials admitted that with these assets Seoul is preparing for possible participation in an international operation to clear the Strait after the war, on the condition of a “favourable environment” that Britain and France have also set for their own multinational mission plan, that is, an end to hostilities or an agreement between Washington and Tehran. “We are committed to participating if asked under those conditions,” one of them said. Such an operation would need separate National Assembly approval.

American pressure and reactions in parliament

The decision follows months of American pressure. Since the war began in February the Trump administration has asked its allies for military assistance, and in August the US president suggested that Lee had refused such a request. National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said on October 30 that Seoul is considering strengthening the unit, noting that Britain, France and Japan have already sent ships to the region.

Kim Joon-hyung, floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, charged that the expansion amounts to sending troops and warned that an accidental incident could escalate into an irreversible military entanglement. The ruling Democratic Party answers that the area of operations does not even reach the Strait. The Cheonghae Unit has operated in the Gulf of Aden since 2009, escorting merchant ships. Seoul’s decision comes as the Revolutionary Guards claim almost daily that ships are hitting mines in Hormuz, with an announcement on Wednesday, November 4 that four tankers were destroyed by mines.