{"id":2199909,"date":"2023-01-17T10:18:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T10:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199909"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:10:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:10:21","slug":"how-yoons-off-the-cuff-remark-about-iran-could-strain-diplomatic-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/01\/how-yoons-off-the-cuff-remark-about-iran-could-strain-diplomatic-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"How Yoon\u2019s off-the-cuff remark about Iran could strain diplomatic relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Yoon Suk-yeol had a successful diplomatic trip this week to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he secured <\/span>$30 billion<\/span><\/a> in investments for key industries and <\/span>billions<\/span><\/a> more<\/span><\/a> in<\/span><\/a> memorandums of understanding (MOUs). However, a careless remark about the UAE\u2019s much larger northern neighbor, Iran, could strain relations between Seoul and Tehran.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon made several planned visits as part of his itinerary, such as to the <\/span>Barakah nuclear power plant<\/span><\/a> in Abu Dhabi, <\/span>the Wahat Al Karama war memorial, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Akh Unit<\/span><\/a>, South Korea\u2019s Special Warfare Unit in the UAE.<\/span><\/p>\n The Akh Unit consists of Army Special Warfare Command\u2019s special warfare and high-altitude counterterrorism teams and underwater demolition team (UDT) and sea, air and land (SEAL) agents. The ROK has stationed Akh Unit in the UAE since 2011 upon request from Abu Dhabi.<\/span><\/p>\n Donned in a desert-patterned combat uniform shirt, Yoon encouraged the Akh Unit\u2019s 147 soldiers to consider the UAE a \u201cbrother country\u201d <\/span>in a speech<\/span><\/a> and appeared to equate Iran with North Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe national security of our brother country is our national security. The UAE\u2019s enemy \u2014 and its biggest threat \u2014 is Iran, [just as] ours is North Korea,\u201d Yoon, adding that South Korea and the UAE \u201cfind ourselves in very similar positions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n TEHRAN IS NOT AMUSED<\/b><\/p>\n While it is not yet clear if Yoon\u2019s advisers vetted the speech before he gave it, the address raised eyebrows \u2014 particularly in Tehran.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, <\/span>described<\/span><\/a> Yoon\u2019s remark as \u201cinterventionist\u201d and said that it revealed \u201ccomplete unawareness of the historical and cordial relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran\u201d and the UAE and a lack of knowledge about the region. The ministry also said it is seeking an explanation from Seoul regarding Yoon\u2019s remarks.<\/span><\/p>\n Seeking to downplay the controversy, the ROK foreign ministry told journalists that Yoon merely meant to offer words of encouragement for the troops and that the \u201cenemy\u201d remark was “irrelevant” to South Korea’s diplomatic ties with Iran or other countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The ministry also stated South Korea has maintained friendly and cooperative ties with Iran since forging diplomatic relations in 1962 and that the government remains firmly committed to developing friendly bilateral relations with Tehran.<\/span><\/p>\n That relationship was relatively smooth and <\/span>trade was stable<\/span><\/a> until 2018 when the Trump administration reimposed sanctions after unilaterally <\/span>withdrawing<\/span><\/a> from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement. According to the <\/span>U.S. Energy Information Administration<\/span><\/a>, South Korea imported approximately 3 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensate in 2017, which made it the fifth-largest importer in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n Relations quickly turned sour when South Korean banks froze Iranian assets per U.S. sanctions. More than <\/span>$7 billion<\/span><\/a> remains frozen in the ROK, Seoul\u2019s payment for oil that Iran had supplied before the U.S. reimposed sanctions.<\/span><\/p>\n In Jan. 2021, the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) <\/span>captured<\/span><\/a> a South Korean tanker, the Hankuk Chemi, in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran accused the vessel of \u201ccreating environmental and chemical pollution in the Persian Gulf\u201d and held it for three months. The ship was released only after Seoul <\/span>promised<\/span><\/a> to help Tehran reclaim its frozen assets, even though both countries claimed that Hankuk Chemi and the funds were unrelated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The issue of the frozen $7 billion fund still remains unresolved.<\/span><\/p>\n