SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY VEHICLES SALE TO IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 002560 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/23/2017 TAGS: PREL PARM PINS PTER MASS KS IR AF IZ SUBJECT: SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY VEHICLES SALE TO IRAN Classified By: A/DCM Joseph Y. Yun. Reasons: 1.4 (b/d). ¶1. (C) During a meeting on August 23 with Park Chul-min, Director of the Disarmament and Non-proliferation Division at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT),Park inquired whether the U.S. Government would have any objection to the following sale of Kia Motors vehicles to the Government of Iran: -- 1,000 0.25 ton "Jeep-like" vehicles. Kia Motors model number: KM 420. -- 1,000 1.25 ton heavy trucks. Kia Motors model number: KM ¶450. ¶2. (C) Meeting in his new, more spacious office -- indicating the rising importance of his division within the MOFAT bureaucracy -- Director Park said the South Korean government had been paying greater attention to military sales, dual use, and end use non-proliferation concerns around the world. He assured the POL-MIL Chief that South Korea shares Washington's particular concern over developing Iranian nuclear capabilities, and its support for terrorist organizations. Owing to these concerns, Director Park said that Iran is now on a watch list generated by the ROK Defense Acquisition Program Act. For that reason the Kia Motors sale has undergone the scrutiny of the Korean government, Park explained. ¶3. (C) Director Park went on to say that after carefully reviewing the proposed sale, MOFAT's preliminary assessment was that Kia Motors should be allowed to sell the vehicles to Iran because the sale did not violate any provisions within the global export control regime. Furthermore, he said the vehicles were not going to Iran's military, but rather to the Iranian border police, adding that they intend to use the vehicles to protect Iran's eastern border area from illegal immigrants and illicit trafficking. Finally, similar vehicles are produced by many other countries, some of whom would be happy to sell their own versions of those vehicles to the Iranians if Kia Motors is denied the sale. Director Park said the ROK plans to make its final decision within the next two weeks. He asked to be informed of any U.S. Government concerns within that time frame. ¶4. (C) EMBASSY COMMENT: Post leaves it to the department's experts on Iran to consider any relevant concerns. Unless there are concerns, no reply is necessary, as the sale will simply go through at the end of the two week period described by Director Park. Post has, however, expressed USG appreciation to MOFAT for its sensitivity to our serious security concerns about Iran, as well as for its beefed-up efforts to scrutinize all such sales to Iran and its willingness to share that information with the U.S. Government. VERSHBOW