By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the South Korean won has experienced "excess volatility," as he underscored the importance of a stable yen for the "entire region" following a recent intervention by the United States and Japan to boost the Japanese currency.

Bessent made the remarks in a CNBC interview after Washington and Tokyo jointly intervened in the foreign exchange market last week in a rare move to help address the yen's sharp fall against the greenback.

"I think a stable yen is not only important for the U.S., but it's very important for the entire region because if the yen were to weaken substantially, then the other currencies would follow it," he said in the interview.

"You know we'd seen excess volatility in the Korean won," he added.

Casting himself as an economic historian, Bessent said that in his view, the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s was partially triggered by an "overly weak" yen.

Commenting on the recent market intervention, the secretary voiced his hope that the "right policies" in Japan will lead the yen to "get back to more of a normal equilibrium price."

sshluck@yna.co.kr

(END)

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