South Korea’s case for helping secure Middle Eastern energy routes has strengthened after the Houthis seized Yemen’s Mokha port, a Red Sea port north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a maritime chokepoint that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and through which about 12% of the world’s goods are typically shipped.

But the advance also exposes a growing gap between the widening threat to Korean energy security and the narrow Hormuz mission Seoul is considering to address it.

Iranian-backed Houthi forces captured Mokha on Thursday and advanced toward positions closer to Bab el-Mandeb, strengthening their