U.S. exempts Korea from Iranian oil sanctions

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday that South Korea will be exempt from Washington's sanctions on the Iranian oil industry, citing a significant reduction in crude imports from the Middle East country.

In a statement, Clinton also said India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan will be granted exceptions to sanctions under the National Defense Authorization Act that are aimed at curbing the financial source of Iran's nuclear program.

"We have implemented these sanctions to support our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to encourage Iran to comply with its international obligations," the secretary said.

"Today's announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation."

Before the announcement, the U.S. administration formally informed South Korea of the measure, according to officials at the South Korean Embassy here.

The U.S. said in March it would grant similar exceptions to Japan and 10 European Union countries.

The law, scheduled to take effect June 28. would prevent any financial institution dealing with Iran's central bank from access to the U.S. financial system.

But it allows the U.S. government to issue waivers or exceptions to firms in countries that "significantly" reduce oil imports from Iran.

In 2010, South Korea imported about 10 percent of its oil from Iran. Seoul has been cutting its purchases since late last year.

Among major importers of Iranian crude, China has yet to get an exception.

Clinton emphasized that Washington remains committed to a "dual-track policy" on Iran of sanctions and dialogue. The third round of P5+1 talks with Iran will be held in Moscow June 18-19, involving Iran, the U.S., Britain, China, France, and Russia plus Germany.

Earlier in the day, the White House said no serious impact to the global oil markets is expected even if it goes ahead with sanctions on Iran.

"Although production disruptions continue to remove some oil from the market and the international response to concerns about Iran's nuclear activities has increased demand for non-Iranian crude oil, production increases in other countries and weaker demand growth overall have mitigated oil market tightness to a degree," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. (Yonhap News)