South Korea to Pursue Unilateral Iran Penalties, Official Says

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A high-level South Korean official yesterday said the government was formulating its own penalties aimed at pressuring Iran to halt disputed elements of its nuclear program, the Yonhap News Agency reported today (see GSN, Aug. 5).

The Korea Herald yesterday reported the Asian country was preparing Iran penalties aimed largely at implementing mandates in a Security Council sanctions resolution adopted in June, amid U.S. pressure on Seoul and other governments this week to impose harsh punitive measures on Tehran. The United States and a number of other nations suspect Iran's nuclear program is geared toward weapons development; the Persian Gulf nation has maintained its atomic ambitions are solely civilian in nature.

"The government has begun studying ways of implementing independent sanctions in order to join in the international trend toward punishing Iran," the South Korean government source said. "Related agencies are reviewing different types of independent sanctions, with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance taking a leading role."

"Currently, we're trying to define the upper and lower limits of the sanctions," the source said, describing the penalties under consideration as a linked set of rules related to Iran. "We will consider sanctions in a way that does not affect the normal activity of our companies."

"Our government has a basic position to cooperate closely on international efforts and measures over the Iranian nuclear issue as a responsible member of the international community," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said. "But we are trying to minimize the damage to the legitimate and normal activity of our companies outside these measures."

Seoul has been "faithfully carrying out" the terms of June's U.N. resolution, the fourth such measure to be put in place against Iran (Yonhap News Agency, Aug. 6).

The potential for Iran to provide nuclear weapons assistance to North Korea highlights the need for Seoul to help place pressure on the Middle Eastern country, a high-level South Korean official told the Herald today.

“The two sides have been cooperating on missile technology since the 1980s,” the official said. “This means that Iran could have just as easily exported uranium enrichment technology to North Korea” (Kim Ji-hyun, Korea Herald, Aug. 6).

South Korea's extensive investments in Iran have raised the stakes for Seoul in the nuclear dispute, the Korea Times quoted an analyst as saying yesterday.

"The Iranian nuclear crisis is Seoul's biggest future challenge," said Alon Levkowitz, a professor with Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "If the Iranian nuclear crisis peaks and significant sanctions are imposed on Iran, or if the situation deteriorates further, Seoul will have to take a stand and deal with the implications this crisis will have on its trade and investments in the region" (Korea Times).

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday mistakenly said Iran has already acquired a nuclear weapon, the Associated Press reported.

Turkey would be "a very good political influence" for the United Kingdom, Cameron said, because Ankara "can help us solve some of the world's problems like the Middle East peace process and the fact that Iran has got a nuclear weapon."

It was "perfectly clear" that Cameron meant the country's effort to obtain a nuclear weapon, his office said.

Still, Cameron's political opponents were quick to exploit the slip. Labor Party member Chris Bryant said the remark was both "downright embarrassing" and could endanger the country.

"He is increasingly getting a reputation for being a foreign policy klutz, with two right feet, both of them firmly planted in his mouth," Bryant said of the prime minister (Raphael Satter, Associated Press/Google News, Aug. 6).

Elsewhere, Cambodia and Iran are expected next week to ink multiple petroleum industry cooperation agreements, Reuters reported. This comes as a number of governments have adopted economic penalties against Iranian energy operations (Reuters I, Aug. 6).

China said today it would not drop collaboration with Iran on continuing trade efforts, Reuters reported.

"Iran is an important trade partner of China's in western Asia and North Africa and one of the country's main oil suppliers. Bilateral economic and trade cooperation has achieved fruitful results," Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang was reported to have told Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi in Beijing.

"China is willing to work hard with Iran, continue to push mutual political trust, and maintain communication, dialogue and coordination on important international issues, to maintain regional and global peace, stability and prosperity," Li stated (Ben Blanchard, Reuters II, Aug. 6).

Tehran submitted a formal grievance to the United Nations on Wednesday over recent U.S. references to a potential attack on Iran, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Washington had prepared a plan for possible strikes on the Middle Eastern state (see GSN, Aug. 2).

“The Islamic Republic of Iran expresses its deep concern over, and strong condemnation of, such provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible statements against the Iranian nation and its institutions, under totally false allegations,” Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaee said in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki (Islamic Republic News Agency, Aug. 5).

One expert in Washington, though, said the United States was not likely to attack Iran, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

"My assessment is that we probably will not do this (military strike)," said Michael O'Hanlon, director of foreign policy research for the Brookings Institution.

U.S. President Barack Obama's opposes the pre-emptive use of force, and Washington fears a strike could undermine its world standing while failing to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue in the long term, he said (Ran Wei, Xinhua News Agency, Aug. 5).

Belarus on Wednesday rebuffed Iranian media reports that Tehran had acquired S-300 air defense components from the country, RIA Novosti reported. Experts have expressed concern that Iran could use S-300 defenses to help protect its nuclear facilities from possible airstrikes.

When Belarus acquired the S-300 system from Russia, it "provided an end user's certificate, which rules out the possibility of re-export," weapons proliferation analyst Igor Korotchenko added. Other third-party nations were similarly prohibited from reselling the defenses, he said.

Iran's assertion on the defenses was intended to garner statements of condemnation from Washington and Jerusalem, "which, as a general rule, leads to the consolidation of various political parties and movements in Iran around the ruling regime," Korotchenko said (RIA Novosti, Aug. 5).