South Korea to Impose Sanctions Against Iran

The U.S. is building a “coalition” of countries to slap economic sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions. Naturally, included in this list of “sanctionors” is traditional U.S. ally South Korea. The U.S. is publicly appreciative.

However, Korea will not be shutting down the Seoul branch of Bank Mellat, which has some Americans up in arms (the link has a very “lively” comments section that any Marmot Holer can appreciate). Trade between South Korea and Iran and the question of sanctions is a bit complex for Korea given the size of Iran’s economy, Korea’s history of trade with Iran and the fact that Korea gets 10% of its oil from said country. Economic sanctions will hurt South Korea to a degree.

Predictably, China opposes Korea’s sanctions against Iran. Korea’s neighbor across the Korean Strait has joined the U.S. in applying/intensifying sanctions. An editorial in the JoongAng Daily evidently supports the sanctions, but asks for government efforts to lessen the impact to local companies.