TEHRAN – South Korea sent an inter-agency delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon, to Washington D.C. for discussing waiver over Iranian sanctions.

According to Yonhap, the delegation met with Francis Fannon, assistant secretary of state for the bureau of energy resources, and roughly a dozen other state and treasury department officials on Thursday.

It was the second round of bilateral negotiations on Washington's decision to resume sanctions against Tehran. The previous talks were held in Seoul in June.

The U.S. has pressed South Korea and some other nations to halt their oil imports from the OPEC member or face so-called secondary sanctions with the May announcement of its exit from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The 180-day grace period is to end on Nov. 4.
Seoul hopes for a conditional waiver, similar to a measure put in place under the Obama administration.

The Northeast Asian country is not an oil producer and more than 13 percent of its total oil purchases come from Iran.

As reported, the U.S. has promised to consider South Korea's position and the two sides apparently plan to continue talks but no schedule has been set.

EF/MA