South Korea minister says alliance with U.S. remains strong

South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said the alliance with the United States remains strong, even when the two countries’ interests differ.

He was responding to opposition criticism that his comments had harmed ties with Washington.

The criticism followed U.S. restrictions on some intelligence-sharing after Chung spoke about a suspected North Korean uranium facility, though South Korea’s intelligence agency says cooperation continues in many areas and denies that the overall volume of shared intelligence has fallen.

Chung said his comments about the facility were made last year, before he became a minister, and that he had explained this to U.S. officials.

He also defended calling a September 21 mine blast in the Demilitarized Zone an accident, saying it was difficult to determine whether it was deliberate.

South Korea’s military says North Korean mines south of the military boundary caused the blast, which injured three South Korean soldiers; North Korea rejects the finding.

Chung said the priority should be to prevent another incident and to align the different boundary lines used by South and North Korea and the U.N. Command.