1. An interagency delegation, headed by Mr. Hong Jin-wook, Director-General for African and Middle Eastern Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had a meeting with Mr. Brad Smith, Deputy Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States (U.S.) Department of the Treasury, and also with Mr. Nick Stewart, Special Assistant on the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State, on February 20 and discussed ways to resume humanitarian trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

° With regard to the resumption of humanitarian trade with Iran, the two sides positively noted the outcome of the visit by an interagency working-level delegation of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to Iran on February 17-18 and agreed to accelerate follow-up consultations on the resumption of exports, including those of medical and pharmaceutical products, to Iran.

2. The interagency delegation’s visit to the U.S. is expected to serve as a good opportunity to draw up ways to resume humanitarian trade with Iran, which has been temporarily suspended since September 2019 when the U.S. imposed additional sanctions on the country.

° The ROK government has had close consultations with the U.S., Iran and other related countries, as seen from the visit to the U.S. in December 2019 by a private-public joint delegation headed by Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon as well as the visit to Iran by a delegation for economic cooperation in November 2019, and will continue such consultations.