South Korea's Foreign Minister says military deployment to Hormuz Strait has not been decided

The operative channel for markets is not the deployment itself, which would be symbolically modest, but what Korean participation or refusal signals about the breadth of any escort coalition and therefore the perceived security of transit through the strait, the chokepoint through which a large share of Asian crude and LNG flows. Past episodes of tanker harassment and escort-coalition formation have tended to price through war-risk insurance premia and freight rates first, with crude following only when physical disruption rather than threat became the base case. Seoul's framing of an undecided position is consistent with how allies in this position have previously managed the request: prolonged deliberation, eventual limited contributions such as repurposing existing regional anti-piracy assets rather than fresh commitments. The follow-ons are the formal decision, the scope of any mandate, and whether other import-dependent allies move in parallel, since coalition breadth rather than any single flag is what has historically shifted the insurance and freight bid.