Choi Jong-gun (left), the first vice minister of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Seyed Abbas Arakchi, the Iranian Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, met at Iran’s Tehran Foreign Ministry on the 10th. Iranian Foreign Ministry website
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As Iran’s foreign minister called for a solution to the issue of its own funds, where withdrawals were frozen from South Korea due to US sanctions, the government drew a line saying that the government could not intervene in the issue of Korean ships captured by Iran. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Jarif said this while meeting a Korean delegation who visited on the 11th (local time) to discuss the issue of capturing Korean ships and freezing assets in Iran, according to Iran’s Ban Gwan-young Mehr news agency. In a meeting with the delegation led by the first vice minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jong-Geon, Minister Zarif said, “The frozen assets in Korea are the biggest obstacle to the development of bilateral relations.” “Considering the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) pandemic, the priority of the bilateral relationship is to enable access to our frozen financial assets in Korea.” He said, “The illegal activities of the Korean banks have a negative effect on the Iranian people, and the image of Korea is severely damaged,” he said. “The Iranian parliamentarians are emphasizing the legal right to resolve this issue promptly.” Regarding the case of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard seizing the Korean chemical carrier’Korea Chemie’, it adhered to the position of “a technical problem under the framework of judicial regulation as it was captured due to environmental pollution in the Gulf Sea (Persian Gulf).” “Of course the Iranian government cannot intervene in the judicial process,” he added. The Iranian government also warned that the issue should not be politicized, even when the US and France demanded the release of Korean ships and crew, AFP reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Hativjade stressed that “whether the US or France have nothing to do with the case, and if they politicize the matter, it will not help solve the technical problem.” Earlier, the United States and France urged the release of Korean ships. A State Department spokesman criticized the capture of ships as “an obvious attempt to extortion the international community to ease sanctions pressure.” The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “This incident is amplifying tensions in the Middle East.” Earlier, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard captured the Korean Chemie in the Gulf waters on the 4th for marine pollution. However, DM Shipping, the shipowner of Korea Chemie, has completely denied the allegations of marine pollution, and 20 sailors, including 5 Koreans, are staying on board the Korean Chemie, which is being detained in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Iran’s funding in Korea, which is one of the backgrounds behind Iran’s capture of the Korean chemistry, is estimated to be 7 billion dollars (about 7.6 trillion won). Iran opened accounts in Korean won with IBK Industrial Bank and Woori Bank under the name of the Iranian Central Bank in 2010, and received payments for crude oil exports through these accounts. However, the U.S. government put Iran’s central bank on sanctions list in 2018, and transactions through the account were suspended, and the Iranian government has demanded that the frozen funds be lifted. The South Korean government dispatched a delegation representing Vice Minister Choi to Iran the day before to discuss the issue of the Korean chemi capture and the Iranian freeze fund. The South Korean delegation met with Iran’s foreign minister Sayed Abbas Arakchi the day before, but it is reported that the South Korean side prioritized the prompt lifting of the detention of ships and crew, while the Iranian side focused on the use of frozen funds. The delegation met with Iranian Central Bank President Abdolnaser Hemmati before meeting Minister Zarif on the day, but he also showed a strong position, saying, “It is a big mistake to freeze Iranian assets and it is unacceptable.” yunhap news- .
