PRAGUE, Dec. 4 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye took a stroll on Charles Bridge on Friday along with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, a rare break after days of intense summits with regional leaders.

The tour made at the request of the Czech Republic is the latest sign of Czech hospitality toward Park, the first South Korean president to visit the central European country in 20 years.

The bridge, whose construction began in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV and was completed in 1402, is one of the most famous tourist attractions.

Park and Sobotka stopped in front of the statue of St. John of Nepomuk, a Czech martyr who was tortured and thrown into the Vltava river from the bridge during the reign of Wenceslas IV.

Sobotka explained the story about the statue. People have touched the statue's plaque over centuries as they believe it could help their dreams come true.

Park took a close look at the statue, though she did not touch it.

"How did you preserve it so well?" Park asked Sobotka as she was viewing the town near the bridge.

Sobotka told Park that his country's management system of cultural property is credited with the preservation.

He later gave Park marionette dolls -- the father-son pair of Spejbl and Hurvinek -- as she was leaving the bridge. Czech officials said Sobotka prepared the dolls after Park showed her interest in the dolls in a banquet for Park and leaders of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

A group of South Korean tourists chanted "Daehanminkuk," meaning Republic of Korea in Korean, and wished Park "good health" when they noticed Park was getting into the car.

Park waved her hands at the Korean tourists and said "thank you."

Park later held a meeting with more than a dozen leaders of the Korean community in the Czech Republic, home to about 1,550 South Koreans, mostly businessmen and their family members.

"I expect the door of more opportunities to open" to South Koreans in the Czech Republic, Park told them, citing the strengthened partnership between Seoul and Prague.

On Thursday, Park held talks with Sobotka and the prime ministers of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the inaugural summit between South Korea and the so-called Visegrad Group.

"There are many areas in which to cooperate with these countries to help North Korea embrace change," Park told South Korean residents, noting the Visegrad Group had the experience of transformation into democracy and market economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Park also visited a concert hall in Prague to watch a performance of South Korean pop groups, an event organized to give a boost to the spread of "Hallyu," or the Korean wave, in central Europe.

The lineup included boy band SHINee and girl group Red Velvet.

The K-pop concert, the first in Prague, drew about 1,800 people from the Czech Republic as well as Hungary, Poland and Slovaki.

South Korea said it estimates the number of K-pop fans in the Visegrad Group countries could be about 160,000, including nearly 4,000 in the Czech Republic.

On Thursday, Park also held separate talks with all four leaders in Prague, which were dominated by Park's sales pitch for South Korea's nuclear reactors and her push to make inroads into infrastructure markets.

Prague is the second and last stop on Park's seven-day tour that took her to Paris for the U.N. climate change summit meant to build political momentum for negotiations on a new legally binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Park left for home later in the day.

By Yonhap News