Stranded People, Suspended Gas: Korea's Double Crisis in the Gulf

More than 8,000 passengers are stranded at Hamad International Airport in Doha. Some are boarding buses for a 12-hour overland journey to Riyadh just to find a flight home. Among them: hundreds of South Korean nationals.

One Phone Call, Two Crises

On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun picked up the phone and called his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The agenda covered two distinct emergencies in a single conversation: getting South Korean citizens out of the Middle East safely, and securing continued liquefied natural gas supplies to South Korea.

That these two issues landed in the same diplomatic call is not incidental. It is a precise snapshot of South Korea's structural exposure to Gulf instability.

Qatar recently announced a suspension of LNG production following Iranian attacks that damaged civilian infrastructure and energy facilities across Gulf Cooperation Council member states. The Qatari foreign minister, for his part, asked Seoul to pay attention to—and express support for—the damage Qatar and its neighbors have sustained. Cho offered condolences and concern. The diplomatic exchange was, in other words, mutual: both sides needed something from the other.

Later the same day, Cho held a second call—this time with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Some South Koreans are evacuating through Istanbul, making Turkey an improvised transit hub for a crisis it did not create. Fidan did not mince words: the conflict is spreading across the region, he said, and has reached "a critical turning point."

The Numbers Behind the Urgency

Approximately 2,000 South Korean nationals are currently in Qatar. A special flight carrying around 300 of them departed Doha on Monday and is due to land at Incheon Airport just after midnight Tuesday. A separate chartered flight from the UAE brought home 203 more. Seoul's foreign ministry is working through diplomatic channels to open additional exit routes as airspace across the UAE, Qatar, and neighboring countries remains severely disrupted.

The human toll is visible and immediate. The energy toll is slower-moving but potentially more consequential.

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South Korea imports roughly 93% of its energy. LNG is central to its electricity generation and residential heating. Qatar is one of its primary LNG suppliers. A prolonged production halt does not just create a supply gap—it forces South Korea into spot markets, where prices carry a geopolitical premium. That premium eventually reaches household utility bills.

The financial markets are already reacting. The Korean won has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar in 17 years. The KOSPI index triggered a circuit breaker amid sharp selling. Seoul has announced emergency crude oil arrangements with the UAE—over 6 million barrels—and is considering implementing a fuel price cap as early as this week.

Competing Interests Around the Same Crisis

Different actors are reading this crisis through very different lenses.

For Seoul, the immediate priority is consular: get citizens home. But the medium-term lesson is structural. South Korea has debated energy diversification—away from Gulf dependence, toward Australian LNG, U.S. exports, and expanded nuclear capacity—for years. This crisis will likely accelerate that conversation, though diversification takes time and capital that don't materialize overnight.

For Qatar, the situation is layered. It is simultaneously a victim of Iranian attacks, a supplier under pressure, and a diplomatic partner being asked for favors by countries that also need to acknowledge its suffering. The asymmetry—Seoul asking for LNG cooperation while Qatar asks for sympathy—is the quiet subtext of Monday's call.

For Turkey, the crisis presents an opening. Ankara has long positioned itself as a regional interlocutor capable of engaging parties across geopolitical divides. Fidan's language about preventing escalation "in close consultation with key countries" signals that Turkey sees a potential mediating role—and intends to claim it.

For energy markets more broadly, Qatar's LNG suspension is a stress test of the global gas supply system. Europe, which has spent three years rebuilding LNG import infrastructure after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is watching closely. Asian buyers—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan—are in direct competition for the same floating cargoes.

The Structural Question No Crisis Solves Itself

South Korea has no pipeline connections to anywhere. Every molecule of gas, every barrel of oil arrives by sea. When Gulf airspace closes, people can't leave. When Gulf infrastructure is attacked, energy supply wobbles. Both happened simultaneously this week.

This is not a new vulnerability. It is a known, documented, repeatedly-discussed vulnerability that successive South Korean governments have acknowledged without fully resolving. The debate over nuclear energy, renewables, hydrogen, and supply diversification all ultimately circle back to the same question: can South Korea make energy decisions that are insulated from geopolitical shocks it cannot control?

The honest answer, in March 2026, appears to be: not yet.