Trump Says Countries That Did Not Help the U.S. Will Be Charged for Strait of Hormuz Costs—Was South Korea the Target?

[Financial News] Donald Trump, president of the United States, who has been attacking Iran since February, warned that he would seek compensation from countries that did not help the United States in response to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
On the 14th (local time), Trump posted on Truth Social, “Oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.” He claimed, “The countries of the world that have been of no help to us whatsoever should, and will, reimburse the United States for the costs when this scam-like conflict is over.” Trump also stressed, “We are doing far more for other countries than we are doing for ourselves, and have been for many generations.”
Since the war with Iran began, Trump has repeatedly demanded that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states and other allies deploy forces to help stabilize the strait. After European allies showed no willingness to send troops, he wrote on Truth Social on March 17, “We neither need nor want the support of NATO countries anymore, because we have already achieved substantial military success.” On June 24, during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump also said that NATO members had been “very unkind to us during our recent small-scale military conflict.”
Trump later announced in July that the U.S. military would charge a toll equal to 20% of the value of cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ensuring the safety of vessels transiting the strait. He withdrew the plan a day later.
Trump did not mention any specific country in his post on the 14th. However, in a Truth Social post on the 16th of last month, he wrote, “On a somewhat unrelated note, I asked the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, if they were willing to join the denuclearization efforts of Iran, and they said, ‘No, thank you!’” In that post, Trump said he had a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and announced that the Ulchi Freedom Shield U.S.–South Korea joint exercise would be scaled back.
Meanwhile, in another post on the 14th, Trump stressed that Iran wanted negotiations with the United States. He wrote, “Iran, a failed country, wants to negotiate very badly and desperately,” adding, “I will decide whether or not the United States will engage in talks.” He continued, “We are open to the concept of dialogue.” In an announcement on the 9th, Trump said the war with Iran would end immediately after the U.S. midterm elections in November. The following day, he claimed it would end immediately after—or before—the midterm elections.

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