Iran renews call on South Korea to unfreeze oil money

“In a phone call with South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun at noon today (Wednesday), I reminded him that only effective and prompt action to remove restrictions on Iran’s resources in South Korea and to compensate for the damage done can play an effective role in repairing the country’s damaged image in the eyes of the people of Iran,” Baqeri Kani wrote in a twitter post on Wednesday.

Ties between Tehran and Seoul have soured in recent years because the South Korean government has been acting in line with unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran.

Tehran wants Seoul to quickly release nearly 8 billion dollars in funds for crude imports frozen because of American sanctions.

Before the sanctions came into effect in 2018, the Islamic Republic was South Korea’s third-largest trade partner in West Asia.

Recently, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned that Tehran would take legal action against the South Korean government if it continued to refuse to pay its debt.

Iran is also upset by the withdrawal of South Korean home appliance companies from Iran after former U.S. president Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.

Late last month, Iran’s presidential office banned the imports of South Korean home appliances.