TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The chairman of Iran-South Korea Joint Chamber of Commerce Hossein Tanhayee has said following last year’s move by the U.S. to renew sanctions against Iran, some Korean small medium-sized enterprises (SME) went bankrupt.
Tanhayee pointed to the 70 percent fall in bilateral trade between Iran and South Korea after the re-imposition of the U.S. sanctions and said the reduction of exchanges have been against the will of the Korean companies.   
After the anti-Tehran sanctions, major Korean corporations were forced to look at their trade relations with Iran with great consideration, the official said.
Two major banks of the East Asian country had also many problems in their cooperation with the Islamic Republic due to the embargoes, he added,
Tanhayee went on to say that all of these problems led to the decline in Iran-South Korea economic relations, causing the bankruptcy of many so-called SMEs or small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea that had ties with Iran.
Back in February, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha voiced Seoul’s willingness to sustain the age-old relations with Iran regardless of the Western sanctions against Tehran.
Earlier, South Korean Ambassador to Tehran Ryu Jeong-hyun said that despite many European companies leaving Iran under the pressure of the US sanctions, South Korean firms understand the significance of the Iranian market and have chosen to stay.
In response to U.S. sanctions, Iran and its trade partners have been negotiating the reduction of the U.S. dollar's share in mutual trade.
Russia, Turkey, India, Iraq, Qatar, China, and others have been actively taking steps to switch to national currencies in settlements in order to bypass Washington’s pressure.