Ties Between Iran, South Korea Shaken over Frozen Funds

The South Korean ambassador to Tehran announced the delivery of $1.2 million worth of medication to help Iran fight the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: South Korean Embassy's Twitter account
The South Korean ambassador to Tehran announced the delivery of $1.2 million worth of medication to help Iran fight the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: South Korean Embassy's Twitter account
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Ties Between Iran, South Korea Shaken over Frozen Funds

The South Korean ambassador to Tehran announced the delivery of $1.2 million worth of medication to help Iran fight the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: South Korean Embassy's Twitter account
The South Korean ambassador to Tehran announced the delivery of $1.2 million worth of medication to help Iran fight the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: South Korean Embassy's Twitter account

Relations between Iran and South Korea have been shaken over funds frozen because of US sanctions.

Iran called on Friday for South Korea to release billions of dollars in frozen funds.

“South Korea’s ban on Iran’s use of its central bank resources to buy basic goods, medicine and humanitarian items is in no way acceptable, and we expect the South Korean government to lift this restriction as soon as possible,” President Hassan Rouhani said, in remarks carried by state news agency IRNA.

He instructed the head of the Iranian central bank to follow up the matter through legal channels and international forums, IRNA said, according to Reuters.

Rouhani did not cite a figure for the frozen funds, but the news agency Borna quoted Hossein Tanhayi, head of the Iran-South Korea chamber of commerce, as saying between $6.5 billion and $9 billion belonging to Iran was blocked in South Korean banks.

“Iran intends to take legal action against this ..., but this is not an easy path and it is time-consuming,” Tanhayi said.

South Korea’s imports of Iranian oil have been zero since May 2019, when the United States revoked waivers which had allowed some countries to continue buying Iranian oil without falling foul of US sanctions.

The United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after President Donald Trump withdrew from a deal to lift them in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran calls the US sanctions economic warfare.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in May that preliminary steps had been taken to set up a channel to allow Iran to use funds in South Korea to buy humanitarian goods. Weeks later South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Seoul was sending $500,000 worth of medicine to Iran.



Russia Fires over 100 Drones at Ukraine as Kremlin Dismisses Transport Chief after Travel Chaos

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Rio via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Rio via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Russia Fires over 100 Drones at Ukraine as Kremlin Dismisses Transport Chief after Travel Chaos

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Rio via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Rio via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russia fired more than 100 drones at civilian areas of Ukraine overnight, authorities said Monday, as the Kremlin dismissed the country’s transport chief after a weekend of travel chaos when Russian airports grounded hundreds of flights due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks. 

At least 10 civilians were killed and 38 injured, including three children, in Russian attacks over the previous 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said. 

Russia recently has intensified its aerial strikes on civilian areas after more than three years of war. Over the past week, Russia launched some 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and almost 1,000 powerful glide bombs at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday. 

Russia’s bigger army is also trying hard to break through at some points along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620 miles) front line, where Ukrainian forces are severely stretched. 

The strain of keeping Russia’s invasion at bay, and the lack of progress in direct peace talks, has compelled Ukraine to seek more military help from the US and Europe. 

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine had inked deals with European allies and a leading US defense company to step up drone production, ensuring Kyiv receives “hundreds of thousands” more this year. 

“Air defense is the main thing for protecting life,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Monday. 

That includes developing and manufacturing interceptor drones that can stop Russia’s long-range Shahed drones, he said. 

Extensive use of drones has also helped Ukraine compensate for its troop shortages on the front line. 

One person was killed in the southern city of Odesa, 27 were injured in northeastern Kharkiv and falling drone debris caused damage in two districts of Kyiv, the capital, during nighttime drone attacks, Ukrainian authorities said. 

Russian short-range drones also killed two people and injured two others in the northern Sumy region, officials said. Sumy is one of the places where Russia has concentrated large numbers of troops. 

Also, nine people were injured and seven killed in the eastern Donetsk region, regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said. He didn’t specify the type of weapons used. 

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that its troops shot down 91 Ukrainian drones in 13 Russian regions overnight, as well as over the Black Sea and the Russian-annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. 

The Kremlin dismissed Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt on Monday, an order published on the Kremlin website said. 

The announcement did not give a reason for Starovoyt’s dismissal. Over the weekend, hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions because of Ukrainian drone attacks.