(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - We are in difficult conditions and will not cooperate with the sanctions (against Iran) thoroughly," Kim told us on the sidelines of the 16th heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran on Tuesday.
Asked about the US pressures on Seoul to implement the anti-Iran embargos, Bong-hyun played the third party pressures, and said, "Our relations (with Iran) will continue powerfully and our economic cooperation will improve."
South Korea announced earlier this month that it would resume crude imports from Iran in September as the Asian nation feels deep worries about the repercussions of any longer halt in imports from Iran.
Seoul halted oil supplies from Iran almost two months ago and after the European Union imposed an embargo on Iranian oil exports, including a ban on insurance cover for those tankers carrying Iranian crude.
But after Tehran offered to supply crude to Korean refiners by using its own tankers, Seoul gave a green light to resume imports from Iran. Tehran has offered to provide up to $1 billion of insurance cover to Iranian vessels shipping oil to South Korea.
And now the Korean economy ministry announced that the country's refiners would resume imports of up to 200,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude from September.
"The imports will resume from early September loading, meaning late September arrival," said a source at the economy ministry who has direct knowledge of the matter but declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.
"The oil will be loaded in Iran to be shipped by Iranian tankers under Iranian insurance cover," the source said.
Japan and South Korea, Iran's third- and fourth-biggest oil buyers, both halted imports in July as they scrambled to work out how to continue imports under the EU sanctions.
Like their Chinese and Indian counterparts, Korean refiners have asked Iran to deliver crude on Iranian tankers, government and industry sources said this month. This shifts the responsibility to Iran for insurance, sidestepping a ban in the EU on insurers covering Iranian shipments.
A spokesman at SK Innovation, which owns SK Energy, told Reuters that the talks with Iran were progressing well, and the refiner expected to resume the imports around September loading.
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Asked about the US pressures on Seoul to implement the anti-Iran embargos, Bong-hyun played the third party pressures, and said, "Our relations (with Iran) will continue powerfully and our economic cooperation will improve."
South Korea announced earlier this month that it would resume crude imports from Iran in September as the Asian nation feels deep worries about the repercussions of any longer halt in imports from Iran.
Seoul halted oil supplies from Iran almost two months ago and after the European Union imposed an embargo on Iranian oil exports, including a ban on insurance cover for those tankers carrying Iranian crude.
But after Tehran offered to supply crude to Korean refiners by using its own tankers, Seoul gave a green light to resume imports from Iran. Tehran has offered to provide up to $1 billion of insurance cover to Iranian vessels shipping oil to South Korea.
And now the Korean economy ministry announced that the country's refiners would resume imports of up to 200,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude from September.
"The imports will resume from early September loading, meaning late September arrival," said a source at the economy ministry who has direct knowledge of the matter but declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.
"The oil will be loaded in Iran to be shipped by Iranian tankers under Iranian insurance cover," the source said.
Japan and South Korea, Iran's third- and fourth-biggest oil buyers, both halted imports in July as they scrambled to work out how to continue imports under the EU sanctions.
Like their Chinese and Indian counterparts, Korean refiners have asked Iran to deliver crude on Iranian tankers, government and industry sources said this month. This shifts the responsibility to Iran for insurance, sidestepping a ban in the EU on insurers covering Iranian shipments.
A spokesman at SK Innovation, which owns SK Energy, told Reuters that the talks with Iran were progressing well, and the refiner expected to resume the imports around September loading.
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