President Park Geun-hye arrived in Brazil Thursday for a three-day state visit to further strengthen economic and other relations with the South American state.

Brazil is the last stop on Park's four-nation swing to South America. The trip already took her to Colombia, Peru and Chile.

Park's South America swing comes as South Korea is pushing to expand economic cooperation with the countries in the region in such areas as health care, science and technology as well as information technology.

South Korean officials hail the region as a continent of opportunities.

On Friday, Park is set to hold her first summit talks with her Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff, to discuss ways to boost bilateral trade and investment, said Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs.

Bilateral trade between the countries stood at US$15.2 billion in 2013, up from $9 billion in 2009.

Earlier Thursday, Park spoke with the head of South Korea's oldest research station in Antarctica to give the 17 scientists and engineers there a pep talk about their work.

South Korea has been running King Sejong Station on King George Island in Antarctica since 1988, two years after Seoul joined the Antarctic Treaty. The research station is named after King Sejong the Great of the Joseon Dynasty, which ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1392 to 1910.

The phone call came a day after Park and her Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, agreed to cooperate on Antarctic research during their summit. (Yonhap)