by Theresa Kim Hwa-young

South Korean Unification Minister replies to statement by US ambassador in Seoul who said that reunification of the peninsula required international mediation. US analysts not surprised by reaction.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – South Korea is North Korea’s only counterpart in peace talks on the Korean peninsula and it is “ultimately something for North and South ( Korea) and not others to figure out,” this according to South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung who was apparently responding to comments by US ambassador to South Korea.

The verbal row began when the US diplomat, Alexander Vershbow, suggested that inter-Korean relations and the six-party process need to move forward at the same pace, "like on a rail track,” and that "to continue with all aspects of engagement regardless of progress on denuclearization would be to pretend to be promoting peaceful reconciliation when a primary cause of those tensions—North Korea's destabilizing nuclear weapons program—was undermining peace on the Peninsula and in the region”.

By contrast, Mr Lee said that inter-Korean relations are essentially matters for Seoul and Pyongyang and no one else notwithstanding South Korea’s interest in reassuring other countries.

“Resolving the nuclear issue will not resolve everything,” he said. In fact, there are issues like humanitarian aid, economic cooperation, and military and security concerns that pertain to the inter-Korean relationship alone.

Seoul’s rebuttal has not particularly offended Washington. For some US analysts, the minister had to speak the way he did because of ongoing talks between the two countries on the inter-Korean rail link.

• koreas
• united
• states
• lee
• jae-joung
• Alexander
• vershbow
• inter-korean
• relations