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By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent and Yi Yong-in, staff reporter

In regard to US-led operations against ISIS, or the Islamic State in Syria, Kim Kwan-jin, head of the Blue House’s National Security Office, hinted on Sept. 16 that the South Korean government is considering the possibility of providing military support.

Kim, who is currently visiting the US, had a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns at the State Department in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. In a subsequent meeting with reporters, Kim said that the South Korean government was planning to review options that fall within the bounds of humanitarian aid.

But when a reporter asked whether the US has asked the South Korean government for military assistance, Kim said that there was still insufficient detail about the military situation. This is being seen as implying that the South Korean government is not excluding the possibility of providing not only humanitarian aid but also military support in the future if the US requests it.

In a meeting with Kim the day before, Susan Rice, National Security Advisor for the White House, provided a detailed explanation of the military operations against ISIS and asked for South Korea’s cooperation.

In a press release issued on Sept. 16, the White House said, “[Ambassador Rice and Director Kim] agreed on the need to counter new and emerging challenges to global security and stability, such as the threat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) poses [. . .] and pledged to continue close consultations.”

Various diplomatic sources say that the US has asked the South Korean government for humanitarian support, implying that it has not asked for military support thus far. This is related to the fact that the US is currently only carrying out air strikes on ISIS.

“As long as the US is only carrying out air strikes, there wouldn’t be any kind of military assistance for the South Korean government to provide,” a diplomatic source in Washington D.C. said. Countries in the Middle East could provide grounds for training or could take part in the air strikes, but South Korea is not in a position to do either.

However, as US operations against ISIS expand in the future, the US could make a request for military aid. The US could ask for help with training the Syrian rebels, who would be in charge of ground operations against ISIS’s base in Syria. If American ground troops get involved in the conflict, it is even more likely that the US would ask for non-combat support including in the areas of transportation, medical treatment, and engineering.

When asked whether the South Korean government would go beyond humanitarian aid, another senior government official indicated that South Korea could provide military support at the US’s request. “We have no choice but to work closely with the US because of our alliance with them. We will carefully review our options during Kim Kwan-jin’s visit to the US, our foreign minister’s visit to the UN and his meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and the two plus two conference between the US and South Korean foreign ministers and defense ministers,” the official said.

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