US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on Tuesday that the South Korean won has experienced excessive volatility. Following the recent coordinated intervention by the US and Japan to support the yen, he emphasized that a stable yen is critically important for the "entire region." Last week, the US and Japan took the rare step of jointly intervening in the foreign exchange market to curb the yen's sharp depreciation against the US dollar, and Bessent subsequently made these comments in an interview.

"A stable yen is not only important for the United States but also crucial for the entire region. Once the yen continues to weaken significantly, other currencies will follow suit," he said in the interview. He added, "We have already seen excessive volatility in the South Korean won."

Drawing on his perspective as an economic history researcher, Bessent analyzed that one of the triggers of the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s was the excessive depreciation of the yen. Regarding this foreign exchange intervention, Bessent expects Japan to implement appropriate policies to guide the yen back to a more reasonable equilibrium exchange rate.