![\"YTN\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0197\/image-8871608e-9781-4cb1-abee-7cc7fb417dda.png\")
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Two anti-ship missiles struck a commercial vessel in international waters.<\/span><\/p>\n 23 days later, the Lee Jae-myung administration released an official conclusion so startling it could rewrite the history of modern weapons technology:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \\”It is difficult to determine intent unless Iran acknowledges it.\\”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Guided missiles do not wander aimlessly.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They activate their radars, lock onto targets, and continually correct their flight paths. In this case, two missiles struck the vessel’s stern roughly one minute apart.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Yet officials say the strikes may not have been intentional.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n By that logic, if someone struck a pedestrian twice in the back of the head with a baseball bat and then claimed, \\”My hand slipped and I accidentally hit him twice,\\” would we simply shrug and sign a settlement?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The desperation behind that explanation is almost palpable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After all, imagine the predicament of officials who must now present that script as an official government statement.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Recall President Lee’s repeated declarations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Time and again he vowed that anyone who harmed South Korean citizens would face devastating consequences.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The message was clear: harm a South Korean, and you will pay a heavy price.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Then two missiles, allegedly launched by Iran, struck a South Korean commercial vessel.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n What happens if the government officially labels the incident a deliberate military attack?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Officials would immediately confront the uncomfortable reality that they must act on those grand promises.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They would face pressure to impose meaningful consequences on Iran.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They would likely have to cooperate more closely with U.S.-led maritime operations in the Strait of Hormuz and adopt a tougher posture toward Tehran.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That may be precisely the problem.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Unable to reconcile earlier rhetoric with current realities and unwilling to move toward confrontation, the government appears to have taken another route: suggesting the two guided missiles somehow arrived by accident.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Critics contend this amounts to suspending common sense itself.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The contrast is even sharper through a domestic political lens.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Within South Korea, the same voices that immediately read hidden political intent into a coffee company’s marketing slogan\u2014finding alleged references in words like \\”tank\\” or \\”desk\\”\u2014now seem unable to assess intent when guided weapons cross the Persian Gulf.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The facility for spotting ideological motives in advertising seems to disappear when missiles are the subject.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Abroad, the reaction is often: \\”Surely they didn’t mean to hit us.\\”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n At home, however, political opponents, businesses, and ordinary citizens face relentless scrutiny over their words and motives.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That contrast invites charges of selective outrage.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps we should adopt this novel theory of physics.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps guided missiles occasionally take leisurely excursions over the sea.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps they sometimes happen, by coincidence, to strike the same ship twice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps, in this strange logic, the burden falls not on those who launch missiles but on those who are struck to explain the attacker’s motives.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n And perhaps, in such a country, expecting a robust national security policy has become an unreasonable luxury.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n #IranTensions * This article has been translated by ChatGPT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two anti-ship missiles struck a commercial vessel in open waters, highlighting rising maritime tensions and security concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/thumbnail\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0197\/thumb-7b4d2981-b74b-432a-8efb-16964056f9bf.jpg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278093],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
#NationalSecurity
#ForeignPolicy<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n