South Korea, Asia, Livid about Israeli role in Fuel Crisis
Juan Cole 04/16/2026
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Most US allies are deeply annoyed by the Netanyahu-Trump war on Iran and the consequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The war has taken around 11 million barrels a day off the market. The world used to produce a little over 100 million barrels a day before the war. While an 11 percent shortfall may not sound like much, the price consequence is much more than a 11% rise at the pump because drivers of gasoline vehicles have no choice but to buy gasoline, and with Saudi Arabia among the producers cut off from the Strait of Hormuz, the main swing producer cannot increase output.
In Europe, gasoline is up as much as 17% and diesel is up 20%-30% since February 28 when Netanyahu and Trump launched their war.
In Asia, the question goes beyond mere high prices to the question of physical barrels. That is, if this war goes on, there simply may not be any vehicle fuel, which would be an enormous catastrophe.
In South Korea, gasoline is up nearly 10% and diesel is up 15%. These percentages would be higher but the country capped fuel prices because of the crisis.
The Iran War has hit South Korea harder than almost any other country in the world, sparking high inflation, crashing its stock market, and leaving it with only a month of gasoline.
A lot of people in South Korea, the world’s tenth-largest economy, are just staying home more, reading novels and playing video games instead of going out. Of course, that hurts the retail sector.
South Korea depends on the Persian Gulf for 70% of its petroleum imports. The country has had to go hat in hand around to producers outside the Gulf to secure 273 million barrels of crude, enough to last it 3 months. That’s the level of crisis — countries are securing fuel for 3 months, with no assurances of what will happen after mid-July. Although many expect the war to end and the Strait to open by then, it will take time for exports to ramp up again.
South Korea secured 18 million barrels of petroleum from Kazakhstan, which ships it by pipeline to a Russian port on the Black Sea, where it can be loaded on ships and taken through the Red Sea to Asia, as long as the Red Sea route remains open. It also was able to secure some Saudi production, which is piped to Yanbu on the Red Sea. It is a scramble. And South Korea’s success means less of this petroleum will go to Europe, where prices will rise and shortages may develop.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a human rights lawyer, engaged in a shouting match with Israel this past week, posting last Friday a 2024 video clip of Israeli soldiers disrespecting a dead Palestinian fighter in the West Bank by pushing his corpse off a building. He initially misidentified the body as that of a live child.
Informed that it was the corpse of an adult, Lee replied, “A small relief, if any, is that it involved a corpse rather than a living person, But even so, such treatment of a body constitutes a violation of international law.”
This is correct.
He added, “The sovereignty of each nation and universal human rights must be respected, and aggressive war should be rejected.”
Detail. President Donald Trump speaks with President Lee Jae Myung of the Republic of Korea in the gift shop at the Gyeongju National Museum, South Korea on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok). Public Domain. Via Picryl
When the well-greased Israeli propaganda machine squawked about the criticism, saying that the clip was from 2024 and the incident had been “investigated,” [why would either thing matter?] President Lee responded,
- “It’s disappointing that you don’t even once reflect on the criticisms from people around the world who are suffering and struggling due to relentless anti-human rights and anti-international law actions. When I am in pain, others feel that pain just as deeply.”
The dispute is not only about Israel’s abysmal human rights record, among the worst in the world, but about the way it has made wars of aggression its way of life in the Middle East, rather creating an inconvenience for everyone else.
There are 26 South Korean oil tankers stranded in the Persian Gulf because of Netanyahu’s war on Iran.
South Korea is a major economic player in the world, and it can’t be having its economy messed about by Netanyahu every few months. Israel’s belligerence is not only hurting it badly in Europe but is creating deep resentments in Asia, where Israeli propaganda has little purchase.