South Korea cannot achieve peace with North Korea by waiting on “approval and clearance from the U.S.,” Seoul’s unification minister said Tuesday, promoting the merits of unilateral action.

Speaking at a seminar in Seoul, Chung Dong-young recalled that the progressive Kim Dae-jung administration (1998-2003) went ahead with South Korean tours to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang despite U.S. suspicions about a DPRK nuclear facility at Geumchang-ri.

“The nature of the Korean Peninsula issue is that even matters like this can’t be resolved with the kind of bureaucratic thinking that waits for approval and clearance from the U.S.,” he said.

Chung