SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye on Monday renewed her calls for North Korea to "immediately" cease its nuclear program and threats of provocations, saying its saber-rattling would only aggravate its isolation and economic travails.

During a speech to mark Liberation Day, Park also defended the planned deployment of an advanced U.S. antimissile system as a "self-defense" measure to protect the nation from Pyongyang's "reckless" provocations, stressing that the plan must not be politicized.





"I urge (North Korea) to immediately stop developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and halt its threats of provocations against South Korea," she said during the ceremony in Seoul to mark the 71st anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

"Any attempt at threatening our people and the Republic of Korea will never succeed."

Park also pressed the communist regime to improve its abysmal human rights situation, saying that Pyongyang must not turn a blind eye to its people's right to enjoy fundamental human rights.

"We will not ignore the misery of North Koreans now in pain due to the North Korean authorities' wrong choices," she said. "We want North Korea to become a normal member of the international community that respects the universal rights of mankind, and international obligations and norms."

The chief executive then pointed out that "should Pyongyang make the right decision and come out with sincerity," Seoul will offer to the impoverished state an opportunity to move in the direction of peace and co-prosperity.

Park also used her speech to urge North Korean elites and ordinary people to join Seoul's efforts to lay the groundwork for national reunification.

"Unification will provide a new opportunity, with which all can be treated equally without discrimination and disadvantages, and can pursue their happiness while realizing their full potential," she said.

Apparently alluding to the mounting criticism of the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the peninsula, Park reiterated that should there be an alternative to THAAD, one should propose it.

It is the latest in a recent series of her statements to defend the plan by Seoul and Washington to station a THAAD battery in the southern town of Seongju by end-2017. Critics have called for a withdrawal of the decision, saying it would pose health risks to residents in Seongju, and strain ties with China and Russia.

Yonhap News