The presidential office said on the 5th that it will hold a meeting chaired by Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik to review and respond to the ship fire in the Strait of Hormuz.
Chief Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung announced the meeting in connection with the explosion and fire on a Korean vessel near the Strait of Hormuz the previous day. Attendees include Kim Sang-ho, head of the National Crisis Management Center at the National Security Office; Lee Hyun, presidential secretary for oceans and fisheries; Choi Hee-deok, secretary for foreign policy; and Kim Jung-woo, head of the State Affairs Situation Room.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that at 8:40 p.m. (Korea time) the previous day, an explosion and fire broke out aboard the "HMM Nuri," a vessel operated by a Korean shipping company, while anchored in waters near the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inside the Strait of Hormuz. The bulk carrier was carrying 24 people in total, including six Korean crew members and 18 foreign crew members, with no casualties reported so far.
In response, U.S. President Donald Trump on the 4th (local time) singled out South Korea and called on it to join an operation to break through the Strait of Hormuz. Claiming the fire aboard the Korean cargo ship was an Iranian attack, Trump wrote on his social networking service (SNS), "I think it's time for South Korea to join this operation too!" The "operation" Trump referred to is the "Liberation Project" to extract third-country vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.
The presidential office took a cautious stance on the 5th, saying, "We need time to determine at the very least whether (the incident) was an attack or not." Making clear that identifying the exact cause comes first, the government is investigating the cause of the explosion and fire, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
