Park vows to work for unification with N. Korea

President Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday to lay the groundwork for potential unification in the new year amid continuing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

"I will open the path toward unification by laying substantial and specific groundwork for unification ... by ending a seven-decades-long division," Park said in a New Year's video message uploaded on YouTube and posted on her Facebook page.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into the capitalistic South and communist North after its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Park's comments came two days after South Korea proposed that the two rival Koreas hold ministerial talks in January to discuss such bilateral issues as the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North has remained silent on Seoul's fresh offer made by South Korea's presidential committee established to make preparations for reunification.

The two Koreas had their last ministerial talks in Seoul in May 2007, although they held separate high-level talks in February.

They had agreed to hold high-level contact between late October and early November during a surprise visit to South Korea by a high-powered North Korean delegation. But the North later backtracked on the deal in protest of South Korean leaflets critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korean defectors in South Korea regularly send leaflets to their homeland to try to encourage North Koreans to rise up against Kim, drawing fierce protest from Pyongyang. 

In November, North Korea ruled out any government-to-government dialogue to improve ties unless South Korea takes action to halt the cross-border leafleting campaign.

Park has made repeated pitches for unification in recent months, calling it a "bonanza" for South Korea as well as a blessing for neighboring countries.

However, North Korea has long suspected that Seoul could be plotting to absorb Pyongyang, a claim denied by South Korea.

Park also said she will work to revitalize the economy and address deep-rooted irregularities to make South Korea a safer country.

"I hope that fellow Koreans will join forces in opening a new era of change and hope," Park said.

(Yonhap)