South Korea will send a destroyer, a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and a mine-clearing team towards the Strait of Hormuz, its defence ministry said on Thursday. The deployment widens the area its Cheonghae anti-piracy unit patrols from the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, to the waters off Oman.

The unit already has a 4,400-tonne destroyer, a helicopter and about 300 service members, and its headcount will rise by 75. Its new area reaches the waters near the Omani port of Duqm, about 650km from the strait. Seoul also plans to send unmanned surface and underwater vehicles.

Officials said the mission is "strictly for non-combat purposes" and will operate separately from allied forces, in "the open waters south of Oman". The patrol aircraft may not target or monitor Iranian territory, Iranian waters or the inside of the strait, according to South Korea's military.