Park to meet rival parties over DPRK nuke test

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's President-elect Park Geun-hye on Wednesday proposed a meeting between rival political parties over a potentially imminent nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"It is Park's belief that security issues are not partisan issues," Park's spokeswoman Cho Yoon-sun told reporters. "She proposes an emergency meeting between the ruling and the opposition parties to discuss North Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear test."

The center-left main opposition Democratic United Party, which earlier in the day issued a statement expressing "firm opposition" to Pyongyang's nuclear test, has accepted the proposal.

Park, who takes office later this month, campaigned on mending ties with the prickly northern neighbor but has repeatedly urged the DPRK to call off its plan to carry out a nuclear test in violation of UN resolutions.

The DPRK has vowed to proceed with missile and nuclear tests targeting the United States, its "sworn enemy," protesting recently expanded UN sanctions put in place after its controversial Dec 12 rocket launch widely seen as a disguised missile test.

The DPRK conducted its first and second nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, weeks after UN condemnations and sanctions over long- range rocket launches.