How Trump's Hormuz Strategy Affects Oil Supply to China, Japan, and Korea

Daniel Kim | 2026.04.11

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 11th (local time) that he will begin operations to secure the Strait of Hormuz as a gesture toward countries including South Korea, China and Japan.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote that he is "starting to clean up the Strait of Hormuz out of consideration for countries around the world, including China, Japan, South Korea, France and Germany," adding that, surprisingly, "they don't have the courage or the will to do it themselves."

In Islamabad, Pakistan, Vice President JD Vance and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament, began peace talks, and Trump claimed the U.S. has achieved an overwhelming victory in its war with Iran.

"As everyone knows, Iran is losing—and losing badly," he said. "Iran's navy and air force are gone, and we've destroyed most of their missile and drone factories."

He said the only remaining threat from Iran is naval mines, but even that is not a problem, claiming all 28 of Iran's mine-laying vessels are at the bottom of the sea.

Trump also said that "a massive number of empty tankers—the largest fleet in the world—are heading to the U.S. to load low-sulfur crude," asserting that "we hold more oil than the second- and third-largest producers combined, and our oil is far higher quality."