By Kang Seung-woo





President Park Geun-hye delivers a speech at a commemoration ceremony of the 61st Memorial

Day at Seoul National Cemetery, Monday. / Joint press corps

President Park Geun-hye urged North Korea Monday to rejoin dialogue with the international community, warning that its continued pursuit of its nuclear weapons program would doom the repressive state.

"The North must realize that its nuclear ambitions will face stronger sanctions and pressure from the international community, which will eventually lead the nation into diplomatic isolation and self-destruction," Park said in a speech during a ceremony marking the 61st Memorial Day at Seoul National Cemetery.

"North Korea's nuclear weapons program is a critical provocation against our security as well as the peace of Northeast Asia and the world. It is also a hurdle for inter-Korean reconciliation and unification."

Park also said her government is set to continue pressing the North to take the path toward denuclearization in close cooperation with the international community, while maintaining a firm combined defensive posture with the United States to immediately strike back against Pyongyang in the event of provocations.

Her speech came one month after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared his country as a nuclear power during the Seventh Workers' Party Congress despite fresh United Nations (U.N.) sanctions imposed on the North in March following a nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February, both of which violated U.N. resolutions.

In addition, the North is believed to be technically ready to carry out a fifth nuclear test at any time.

The President then called for national unity to pave the way for peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.

"There cannot be differing views between the ruling and opposition parties, between regions and between generations when it comes to national security," she said.

Also, Park pledged that the government will provide retired soldiers with better welfare.

According to the President, the government plans to open a medical institute and a veterans' hospital in Incheon by 2018. In addition, it will create 50,000 jobs for veterans, inducing local solid companies to hire more retired soldiers by 2017.