Seoul’s Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs said North and South Korea should take the lead on unification, with the UN arbitrating between the two Koreas and neighboring countries, at a conference in Seoul today.

Shin Dong-ik, who worked at South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1981 often in cooperation with the UN, made the remarks at event focusing on the UN’s role on the peninsula.

“The UN is a safeguard. The South and North should lead unification, and neighboring countries can help us. Then the UN can coordinate these relations, and prevent excessive, unjust intervention against the