Park proposes emergency meeting with political parties to discuss N.K. nuclear tension

South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye on Wednesday proposed an emergency meeting with the country's ruling and opposition parties to discuss the issue of North Korea's apparently imminent nuclear test, a spokeswoman said.

"President-elect Park proposes an emergency meeting with the ruling and opposition parties to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue and the security situation on the Korean Peninsula," Park's spokeswoman Cho Yoon-sun said in a news briefing.

The proposal comes as North Korea is widely expected to conduct its third nuclear test at any time.

The meeting would be attended by the chiefs of the ruling Saenuri and main opposition Democratic United parties, the leaders of the National Assembly's foreign affairs committee and members of Park's transition team, Cho said.

The meeting's time and format will be decided after consultations with the opposition, she added.

Shortly after the announcement, the opposition party accepted the proposal.

"We agree with the general idea of the proposal and will start discussing the details," party spokesman Park Yong-jin told a news briefing at the National Assembly, saying the proposal has significance amid heightened public anxiety over security.

He noted, however, that Park's proposal came shortly after his party made a similar proposal for a four-way emergency meeting between the president-elect, President Lee Myung-bak, and the ruling and opposition party chiefs.

Tensions are high on the peninsula after North Korea said last month it will carry out a nuclear test in response to a U.N.

Security Council resolution condemning its Dec. 12 long-range rocket launch.

South Korean government officials and experts have said the test could even come before Park's Feb. 25 inauguration.

Park has urged North Korea to immediately drop its nuclear test plans, warning the communist nation that it would gain nothing but "strong" punishment from the international community if it forges ahead with an atomic blast. (Yonhap News)