A senior U.S. State Department official has reportedly said that South Korea and Japan should “find their own solutions” to the current row over Tokyo's export curbs. 

According to the Voice of America on Friday, Marc Knapper, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan, made the remarks Thursday at a forum in Washington when asked if the U.S. may try to mediate the dispute.

Knapper said South Korea and Japan are important U.S. allies and that constructive, productive relations between the two are very much in the national interest of the United States.

He added the U.S. remains engaged in close conversations with both allies.