North Korea should heed a former Mongolian leader's recent call for Pyongyang to embrace reform and openness, President Park Geun-hye said Monday, in the latest push for inter-Korean dialogue.

Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat, who ruled Mongolia from 1990 to 1997, told local media that security comes from a fat wallet, not nuclear programs, and that North Korea should choose the path of reform and openness if it wants to feed its people.

Park said Mongolia, Vietnam and Myanmar are on track for development and growth after opting for reform and openness.

"North Korea should quickly take the path to reform and dialogue by recognizing the wave of change, not ignoring it," Park said in a meeting at the presidential office on preparing for potential unification.

She also suggested that the recent move by the United States and Cuba to work to restore diplomatic relations after decades of estrangement could be one of the models North Korea should follow.

"Our goal is to induce North Korea to come forward as a responsible member of the international community, not isolating it," Park said.

The North has remained silent on South Korea's offer to hold ministerial talks to discuss bilateral issues. It has also recently ratcheted up rhetoric against South Korea over its planned annual joint military drills with the United States. The North claims the joint military drills are a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it.

North Korea has rejected repeated international calls to abandon its nuclear weapons programs and emulate such countries as Vietnam and Myanmar.

Instead, North Korea has vowed to develop its economy and nuclear arsenal in tandem, viewing its nuclear programs as a powerful deterrent against what it claims is Washington's hostile policy against it.

South Korea and the U.S. warned that the North's policy is a dead end for the country. (Yonhap)