REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration would be in favor of high-level contacts beginning soon between South Korea and Japan to mend fences, a senior White House official said.

Evan Medeiros, the senior director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), stressed both Seoul and Tokyo have a "strong interest" in improving their relations.

"We would welcome high-level contacts to begin soon," he said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency earlier this week. "We think that it's possible for them to reach mutually acceptable solutions through diplomacy."

He refused to go into details, just adding, "We hope that high-level contacts are resumed soon in order to identify that pathway to improve relations."

His remarks were viewed as representing the U.S. government's message for its two major regional allies to do more to warm their ties.

But the official, a key player in the Obama administration's Asia policy, made it clear that Washington would not act as a "mediator."

South Korea has been often at odds with Japan over territorial claims and the interpretation of shared history.

South Koreans accuse Japan's Shinzo Abe leadership of trying to whitewash the nation's wartime atrocities.

Abe's visit to a controversial Tokyo war shrine in December added fuel to an uproar in South Korea.

Drawn-out standoffs between the neighboring nations are apparently impeding the U.S.'s efforts to bolster trilateral cooperation in countering North Korea's threats and other security threats in Northeast Asia.

On Pyongyang, Medeiros said the Obama administration will continue its current approach of the so-called strategic patience.

"I think I am very comfortable with that current position," he said. "We think pressure and sanctions are an important part of enabling diplomacy."

He pointed out the communist nation is still rejecting denuclearization, while Iran is in the process of beginning substantial talks on its nuclear program.

He also said the North should not try to link the issue of resuming reunions of separated families with upcoming South Korea-U.S. joint military drills.

"We simply reject this linkage. They're separate issues and should be separated, or treated separately," he said.

He emphasized that Seoul and Washington are prepared to cope with all possible contingencies.

"In the 60 years of alliance we have a lot of experience deterring North Korean provocations and planning for responses to a variety of different scenarios," he said. "We've got a full range of planning mechanisms in place."

Medeiros took up the post in July last year after serving as director for China issues at the NSC.

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