Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin and held talks with him on Friday, September 22 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York. The Iranian foreign minister said, “I hope, with the new atmosphere created after unfreezing Iran’s assets, we will be able to make up for the past setbacks in our bilateral ties.” He added there is a huge potential in the relations between the two countries that have to be used, but the bilateral ties need to be redefined in this regard. Amirabdollahian stressed the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to boost cooperation with South Korea in the fields of science, technology and culture, as well as consular cooperation between the two countries. The Iranian foreign minister thanked the South Korean delegation for taking part in the recently-held International Conference on Combating Sand and Dust Storms in Tehran. He stressed that security in the Persian Gulf and energy security are very important for Iran and added South Korea can benefit from Iran’s transit capacities from the east to the west and the north to the south. Amirabdollahian then invited his South Korean counterpart to visit Iran, which was welcomed, with the timing of which to be decided through diplomatic channels.  For his part, Park Jin expressed hope that resolving the issue of Iran’s assets would lead to stronger ties between Iran and South Korea.  He said he was ready to pave the ground for stepping up the commercial cooperation between the two countries, saying cooperation in cultural, women’s, sports, scientific and academic fields are good areas for boosting cooperation between the two countries.  The South Korean foreign minister also extended an invitation to his Iranian counterpart to visit South Korea. ********************