SEOUL, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Efforts are under way to transfer Iran‘s funds that had been frozen in South Korea, foreign minister Park Jin said, after Teheran reached a deal with the United States to release American citizens in return for freeingIranian assets.
Park told hisIranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a phone conversation on Monday that involved countries were in close communications to resolve the issue, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Park and theIranian foreign minister agreed to expand cooperation between the two countries, it said.
The United States andIran reached an agreement last month for the release of five U.S. citizens detained inIranwhile $6 billion ofIranian assets in South Korea would be unfrozen.
ANALYSIS: What Exactly Does the U.S.-Iran Agreement Contain?
The assets that had been frozen in South Korea were transferred to Switzerland’s central bank in August for exchange and transfer toIran, South Korean media has reported.
(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi. Editing by Shri Navaratnam)