Caught between competing demands from Washington, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung this week drew a firm line against military entanglement in the Iran conflict while quietly positioning Seoul as a bridge-builder between the United States and North Korea. His triple-repeated refusal to send troops to the Strait of Hormuz reflects a domestic society unwilling to be drawn into distant wars, even at the cost of alliance friction. Meanwhile, the prospect of renewed Trump-Kim diplomacy reopens a chapter that closed abruptly in Hanoi in 2019—this time with a Korean peninsula carrying far more nu