President Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday that she will spare no efforts to induce North Korea to embrace the path of dialogue and cooperation, the latest conciliatory gesture toward Pyongyang amid lingering tensions.

Park also said she will not abandon her efforts, despite North Korea rejecting Seoul's offers for bilateral cooperation and refusing to give up its nuclear programs.

North Korea has repeatedly vowed to develop its economy and nuclear arsenal in tandem.

North Korea views its nuclear weapons programs as a deterrent against what it claims is Washington's hostile policy against it.

Seoul and Washington have warned that the North's dual-track policy is a dead end for the communist country.

Inter-Korean relations are currently at one of their lowest points in years. A South Korean defense ministry spokesman recently called for the end of the North Korean regime. North Korea, meanwhile, has called the unmarried female South Korean leader "an old prostitute." (Yonhap)