President Park Geun-hye called Wednesday for efforts to achieve unification with North Korea amid lingering tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
  

"Unification is not a vague dream anymore, but a historic task that we must achieve in this era," Park said in a video message to the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification on the 24th anniversary of its foundation.
  

Park has made similar pitches for unification in recent months, calling it a "bonanza" for South Korea as well as a blessing for neighboring countries.
  

Still, North Korea has long suspected that Seoul could be plotting to absorb Pyongyang, a claim denied by South Korea.
  

Inter-Korean relations are currently at one of their lowest points in many years. (Yonhap)