South Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Joo Hyung-hwan, heading a high-ranking delegation, will visit Iran in February to discuss ways of bolstering bilateral trade ties, IRNA quoted South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se as saying. South Korea, which was Iran’s long-time economic partner before sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program were imposed, has been striving to get a piece of action in the sanctions-free Iran. On Monday, Seoul launched a business center to support local firms exporting to Iran. In the first 11 months of last year, Iran-South Korea bilateral trade reached $6 billion, compared with $17 billion in 2011.
