President Park Geun-hye called on officials on Monday to maintain thorough preparations to cope with any possible provocations from North Korea, saying Pyongyang is trying to stage reckless provocations.

"Now is a very crucial time for the future of the Korean Peninsula," Park said in a meeting with her top aides at Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea's presidential office.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said his country will conduct "a nuclear warhead explosion test and test-fire several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads" soon.

Still, he did not elaborate on a specific time frame.

Kim's comment is the latest sign of his defiance against tougher U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for carrying out its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7.

The sanctions call for, among other things, the mandatory inspection of all cargo going into and out of the North and a ban on the country's exports of coal and other mineral resources to cut off North Korea's access to hard currency.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama imposed fresh unilateral sanctions on North Korea to put further pressure on Pyongyang.

Obama has said the new measures block movement of assets controlled by the government in Pyongyang, its ruling Workers'

Party and "any person" helping the regime with its nuclear and missile programs. The U.S. move also targets cyberattacks, human rights abuses and other illicit activities.

Touching on politics, she voiced concerns about a set of bills stuck in limbo in parliament as the rival parties focus their attention only on how to win next month's parliamentary elections.

"Fierce battles begin among parties to win the elections"

instead of caring for people and the national economy, Park said.

The rival parties have been mired in factional infighting, respectively mainly over who will win the nominations for the elections. South Koreans are set to go to the polls on April 13 to elect new lawmakers.

"We should not forget that the most important thing is people's livelihoods," the chief executive said, noting that politics has come to a standstill due to the elections.

Park has repeatedly pressed the National Assembly to pass a set of bills which she said would help reform South Korea's labor markets and revitalize the economy, though no major progress has been made in parliament. (Yonhap)