South Korea's exports to Iran dropped nearly 90 percent from a year earlier in the first 11 months of last year, data showed Sunday.
In the January-November period, Seoul's shipments to Iran reached $259 million, down 88.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the data from the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).
The amount still marked the 14th largest, but the rate drop was by far the highest among the 20 largest export countries to Iran.
China continued to top the list despite a 38.8 percent on-year decline in its exports to Iran, while Germany took the sixth spot after a 49.1 percent drop in its shipments to Iran, according to Yonhap news agency, which cited KOTRA’s statement.
Such declines apparently followed US-led sanctions that were put back in place after Washington unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers.
As of October 2019, 83 foreign companies with previous operations in Iran had stopped doing any business in Iran, according to KOTRA.
