South Korea and the United States had discussed an invitation by China to get South Korean President Park Geun-hye to attend a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing, but there was no consensus on the matter between the allies, a Hong Kong-based newspaper reported Monday.

China has invited world leaders to attend the huge military parade in September that is expected to highlight Japan's surrender in the war, but many Western leaders are likely to shun the event because it could risk trumpeting China's rivalry with Japan.

The South China Morning Post, citing a South Korean diplomatic source, reported that China was pushing hard to get Park to attend the event.

"The Chinese side takes it for granted that President Park will attend the ceremony because of the good relations between the two countries," the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

"But we also need to consider our relations with Washington and Japan. Our relationship with Japan is not good, but we are willing to improve," the source was quoted as saying.

The source told the newspaper that South Korea and the U.S. discussed the matter, but they "did not reach a consensus."

Officials at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing were not immediately available for comments.

Previously, South Korean diplomats said China invited both Park and the South Korean military to attend the September parade.

However, South Korea feels awkward about accepting the Chinese invitation because of a rivalry between China and Japan amid Beijing's increasingly assertive actions in territorial disputes with its neighbors, according to the source.

Another embarrassing point is that the military parade will be staged at Tiananmen Square, where the Chinese Communist Party crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in a bloody crackdown in 1989, the source said. (Yonhap)