Tehran, Oct 1 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has urged South Korea to resolve the problem of Iran's access to its financial assets frozen in the latter's banks "as soon as possible."

In a telephone conversation on Thursday with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong, Abdollahian strongly criticised the continuation of freezing Iran's assets, according to a readout released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on its website.

The top Iranian diplomat called for ending "the current impasse created by following the path drawn by the United States," so that Iran can use them to buy such essential items such as medicines, Xinhua news agency reported.

Due to the existing problem and suspension of trade between the two countries, and even restrictions on the trade of humanitarian items, the Iranian people are very dissatisfied with this situation, Abdollahian said.

Meanwhile, he praised the friendly relations between the two countries in the past decades, and stressed the need to further develop bilateral ties.

For his part, Chung stressed the need to resolve the problems existing in bilateral relations.

Over $7 billion of Iranian funds from oil exports are frozen in South Korean banks amid the US sanctions on Iran.

--IANS int/shs