Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program are teetering on the edge of failure, and few are as anxious to know whether the two countries will strike another deal as South Korea.

Despite its American ally’s long-standing suspicions over Iran’s nuclear program, Seoul has managed to maintain economic relations with Iran and is keen to move past recent friction and resume trade with the oil juggernaut. 

Resource-deficient South Korea needs to import energy to keep its industry going, and it gets the vast majority of that from the Middle East. South Korea was the second-largest importerof