AFP
A South Korean delegation led by Koh Kyung-sok (L), director general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s Africa and Middle Eastern affairs, leaves for Tehran at Incheon international airport, west of Seoul, on January 6, 2021.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the main goal of the visit by a South Korean delegation to Tehran is to discuss ways of accessing Iran’s financial resources blocked in the Asian country under the US pressure.
Khatibzadeh’s remarks came after a South Korean delegation arrived in Iran on Thursday amid tensions following the seizure of a South Korean oil tanker and its crew by Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf waters this week, according to IRNA.
Khatibzadeh said the delegation is part of a delegation headed by the South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-Kunm, which is scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Sunday.
The delegation’s trip was agreed upon before the seizure of the South Korean ship, and its main agenda is to discuss how to access Iran’s financial resources in South Korea, Khatibzadeh noted.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Monday it had seized the South Korean-flagged Hankuk Chemi for infringing maritime environmental laws.
The IRGC said the vessel was carrying 7,200 tons of “oil chemical products” and that the detained crew were from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
The IRGC’s Navy said the tanker had been impounded upon a request by Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization and a verdict by the prosecutor office of Hormuzgan Province.
The ship was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz when it was intercepted for causing water pollution.