By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter


South Korea will dispatch its deputy foreign minister to Iran early next week to solve what looks like a bid by Teheran to punish Seoul for voting for a U.N. resolution on its nuclear program.

Iran rejected imports from South Korea since Oct. 17. At least five cases of such a retaliatory measure have been confirmed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul said on Thursday.

Lee’s visit to Tehran was announced right after the ministry called in Iranian Ambassador to South Korea Jahanbaksh Mozaffari to check why the Iranian government blocked imports of South Korean products.

``The ambassador said there might have been some problems between working-level officials (in Iran) such as miscommunications,’’ a ministry official told reporters at a background briefing.

But he failed to properly react to a criticism that a vice minister in Seoul plans to fly to Teheran to deal with a ``working-level’’ problem. Another ministry official said later that Lee’s plan to visit Iran was added to his original itinerary to Europe, which begins Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Iranian ambassador tried to prevent the negative impact of the on-going dispute from spreading to the bilateral relations.

``There might be some technical problems,’’ Mozaffari told reporters at the ministry in Seoul. ``We are going to work on that. We have a strong and solid relationship (with South Korea) and we will overcome any difficulties if there are any.’’

The ambassador held a meeting with Son Se-joo, director of the foreign ministry’s Middle East and African affairs bureau.

The ambassador said he did not hear of any official notice from his government upon the imports ban and asked, ``Please be cautious of any critical prejudice or jumping to conclusions.’’

Seoul might have to wait until Saturday to get an official reaction from Teheran as to why it began to ban importing goods from South Korea because Thursday and Friday are holidays in most Islamic countries, including Iran.

Iran hinted last month that it could use trade to punish countries that voted for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution, which referred Teheran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear programs.

A total of 22 countries, including South Korea and the U.K., voted for the resolution, while 12 other countries, including China and Russia, abstained.

South Korea exported goods worth $2.13 billion to Iran last year, an increase of 20 percent from 2003. As of September this year, Seoul shipped products worth $1.58 billion to Teheran.

In a fiery speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied Iran had any intention of producing nuclear weapons. To prove that, he offered foreign countries and companies a role in Iran’s nuclear fuel production program.

Ahmadinejad rejected a European offer of economic incentives in return for Iran permanently halting its uranium enrichment program, saying production of nuclear fuel was Iran’s ``inalienable right.’’

im@koreatimes.co.kr