Given Seoul's resolve to conduct joint military exercises with the United States in July, despite North Korea's threats of waging a nuclear war, and the positive atmospherics on the importance of the U.S.-South Korea and U.S.-Japan Alliance, this should have been an auspicious opportunity for the U.S. delegation to build solidarity on the issue of Iranian oil purchases. But the Korea Times reported on August 10 that Seoul was still not willing "to go after Iran . . . as hard as [the] U.S. wants." The article noted that Iran supplies about 10 percent of South Korea's oil and that bilateral trade was worth more than $16 billion. It added that the South Korean authorities have found evidence of wrongdoing at the Seoul branch of Bank Mellat, Iran's state commercial bank, but have yet to decide how and when to punish the bank. Tehran has responded angrily, with Vice President Muhammad Reza Rahimi saying in a speech, "The [South] Koreans . . . need to be slapped."
