South Korea must immediately free the frozen Iranian assets that have been blocked there for years, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said Thursday, highlighting the importance of Tehran gaining access to its blocked funds.

"The Iranian gov't and people expect the new administration to immediately unfreeze our assets to provide a basis for improving bilateral ties," Bagheri Kani told First South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun-dong in a phone call, the Iranian official wrote on Twitter.

Had a phone call with South Korea’s 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. I emphasized that the Iranian govt. & people expect the new admin. to unfreeze our assets to provide a basis for improving bilateral ties. He stated that Seoul is exploring a new way to resolve the problem. https://t.co/dPF6kKJhEO

— علی باقری‌کنی (@Bagheri_Kani) July 13, 2022

The Islamic Republic's diplomat noted that Seoul had stated that South Korea was exploring new ways of resolving the problem that started in 2018 under former US President Donald Trump.

Iran has frozen funds and assets in several countries, including South Korea, but the latter has been closely working with Washington and waiting for a permit from there to repay its debt to the Islamic Republic.

Seoul and Tehran are holding working-level consultations in a bid to resolve the issue revolving around the Iranian assets frozen in South Korea due to US sanctions and pressure on the peninsula. 

Washington unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the 2015 JCPOA, more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, under then-President Donald Trump, who accompanied his arbitrary decision with the imposition of harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iranian officials have over and over again said the South Korean government was obliged to unfreeze the country's funds, stressing that unilateral sanctions from the United States could not justify Seoul's inaction in repaying its debts to Tehran.

Iran and South Korea had previously agreed to use the funds for the latter to purchase humanitarian items from Iran, which was later prevented due to Seoul's commitment to honoring Washington's sanctions.

Seoul's illegal compliance with the unilateral sanctions was met with restrictions on imports from South Korea as a retaliatory measure.

Seoul did circumvent the sanctions in early 2022, however, paying $18 million in frozen Iranian funds to pay Tehran's UN dues and restore the country's voting rights.

The US Department of State announced last year that it had issued an exemption to some of Iran's blocked funds in South Korea and Japan, allowing them to import Iranian oil. The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the "transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea."