A screen displays a portrait of Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during the funerals of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, army commanders and others killed in the early days of the United States and Israeli strikes on Iran, at Enqelab Square, Tehran, March 11. AFP-Yonhap

The ongoing war in Iran has critical implications for countries like Korea that face adversaries across their borders. It has demonstrated how the sudden intervention of a third country — in this case, Russia — acting in sync with an adversary can affect the course of a conflict and eventually force a country to change its playbook.

According to U.S. officials, Russia shared high-quality satellite imagery and targeting data with Iran and helped the country identify blind spots in U.S. air defenses, enabling it to launch targeted strikes with drones and missiles.

Iran is not comparable to the United States in overall military strength. From the onset of the war on Feb. 28, the U.S. was able to locate and destroy major Iranian infrastructure facilities and eliminate key political and military figures, including the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, using its strategic assets.

But even the most expensive weapons have vulnerabilities. Iran fought back by exploiting weaknesses in U.S. defense systems and making the most of its asymmetric capabilities in drones.

Iran’s cheaper drones — most notably the Shahed series — targeted valuable U.S. assets deployed in the Middle East, such as early-warning radars, over-the-horizon radars and command and control centers, severely damaging some of them. On March 1, an........

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