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Protesters urge South Korea to stay out of Iran war / Photo: © AFP
Protesters urge South Korea to stay out of Iran war
Dozens of South Koreans urged their government on Wednesday not to deploy troops to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, slamming what they called Washington's "illegal war".
The protesters across from the large US embassy compound in Seoul waved signs saying "Do not join a war of aggression" as their leaders weigh a "contribution" to the waterway's security.
US President Donald Trump has pressured ally South Korea to help in the Middle East war, which has seen Iran take a stranglehold on the strait key to global oil supplies.
"We cannot send our young people into a sea of death!" chanted the protesters, who numbered about 60 according to an AFP estimate, on the steps outside Seoul's Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.
The protest came a day after South Korean defence authorities said they had sent a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Hormuz, while stressing that no decision had been made on any deployment.
South Korea said Friday it was considering "contributions" to US security efforts along the strait provided that its own military readiness was not compromised.
Iran has warned that any South Korean deployment would be "regarded as direct support for the party responsible for that aggression and will have serious consequences".
Jung Kyung-jik of the civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy told AFP that he saw Tehran's point.
"As Iran has said, the deployment of our troops to the region would amount to direct participation in an illegal war," he said.
"There have been numerous violations of international law arising from US attacks on Iran, including the bombing of an elementary school and energy infrastructure," he said.
Trump has struggled to get help from allies in the war that the United States and Israel launched on Iran six months ago and has since hit an impasse.
Iran maintains a stranglehold on the strategic strait -- which was the conduit for one-fifth of the world's oil supply before the war -- and Washington has pressed its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
Choi Young-ok, a member of Korean Peace Solidarity for Sovereignty and Reunification, warned that a deployment would "inevitably lead to casualties".
"Sending our troops to an illegal war waged by the United States is unacceptable," she said.
"There is no reason for us to send troops when no other country has done so or said it would."
If Seoul were to deploy armed forces to the strait, it would require parliamentary approval by a majority vote in the National Assembly.
L.Zielinski--GL
