SEOUL, April 21 (AJP) - The assembly lines in South Korea's southern industrial city of Ulsan and the semiconductor hubs of Gyeonggi, south of Seoul, are facing a systemic threat as a full-scale conflict between Iran, the United States, and Israel has effectively paralyzed the primary energy lanes of the world since the end of February.
With the Strait of Hormuz blocked and the flow of Middle Eastern crude to South Korea curtailed, the Embassy of Türkiye in the Republic of Korea convened a strategic press briefing on Tuesday to present a mandatory land-based alternative.
The session, led by Ambassador Murat Tamer, Commercial Counsellor Özlem Üntez, and Communications Counsellor Sercan Doğan, detailed a shift toward the "Middle Corridor" as a vital path for Seoul to bypass the current maritime chokehold. Ambassador Tamer framed the crisis as a definitive breaking point for the global order, noting that the disruption in the Persian Gulf has exposed the extreme fragility of the world economy.
"Today, the international environment we face is manifesting in ways that transcend traditional concepts of crisis," Tamer said, pointing to the price pressures and supply chain failures that have followed the outbreak of hostilities. He argued that the industrial model of South Korea, which relies on secured maritime access, requires an immediate pivot toward the established energy and logistics network of Türkiye.
The briefing focused on the capacity of Ankara to serve as a "security reference point" through its vast pipeline infrastructure. Tamer highlighted the TANAP and TurkStream networks, which handle 30 billion and 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas respectively, as stabilized gateways to Mediterranean and European markets.
During a subsequent discussion on the interdependence of the two nations, Tamer observed that any break in the flow of goods would be devastating for both parties. "The miracle of Korea is to find the technology, invent technology, tantalize that technology, and insert that technology in the production line," Tamer said.
He warned that "any interruption in this supply chain will hurt Korea, will hurt Turkiye, will hurt world."
Commercial Counsellor Özlem Üntez provided the economic architecture for this industrial realignment. "Türkiye has a large and dynamic economy in the region and the global world," Üntez said, noting that GDP growth reached 3.6 percent in 2025. She emphasized that the young population of 86 million and the Customs Union with the European Union provide South Korean firms a duty-free entry point into a market of 450 million consumers.
"Thanks to the Customs Union with the EU, we can sell our products without any limitation, any tariff, any barrier to the EU countries," she added.
The structural shift includes a push for South Korean foreign direct investment to balance a trade relationship where Seoul holds a significant surplus. In 2025, South Korea exported 9.11 billion dollars to Turkiye while importing only 2 billion dollars in return. Üntez highlighted the potential for deeper cooperation in defense and green energy, noting that the nation is a major "exporter country in terms of unmanned aerial vehicles".
A centerpiece of this long-term strategy remains the Sinop nuclear power plant project, which Tamer described as a "100-year partnership" involving KEPCO. Negotiations for the plant, involving 15 years of construction and 80 years of operation, have continued following the visit of President Lee Jae Myung to Ankara in November 2025.
Tamer maintained that such projects are essential to "patch our wounds" inflicted by the current war. "This war in the Middle East is going to wound us, it's going to hurt us, but we have to patch our wounds so that those wounds will not leave a permanent scar on ourselves," he said.
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