Park warns N. Korea will pay price in case of provocations

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye has warned that North Korea will be forced to pay "a price" if it forges ahead with banned nuclear or missile tests, according to an interview published Thursday. "Should the North go ahead with provocative actions that violate the U.N. Security Council resolutions, there will certainly be a price to be paid," Park said in a written interview with Bloomberg News ahead of her visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. "The Korean government is making every diplomatic effort to prevent the North from further belligerence, by working closely together with the international community including the U.S.," she said, according to the report. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have flared anew after the North strongly hinted it would conduct a banned long-range rocket launch, possibly around next month's ruling party anniversary. Pyongyang also said its bomb-making nuclear facilities have returned to normal operation and it could conduct a nuclear test if necessary. Park urged the North to give up its nuclear program, saying Seoul will work with the international community to provide "a range of assistance" if Pyongyang makes the strategic decision, according to the report. She also said that a three-way summit she's expected to hold her Chinese and Japanese counterparts "will serve as a chance to "get a better grasp of developments in the North Korean nuclear and other issues, and find more common ground in pushing back against the North Korean nuclear challenge." Park said she will try to expand trade and investment with Japan, though the relations between the two countries have been strained for years due to history and territorial tensions. Referring to Japan's new security legislation that has enabled the country to fight alongside its allies in the name of "collective self-defense," Park said Japan should "duly take into account the sense of unease inside and outside Japan" over the legislation. "Adopting a stretched interpretation of this legislation ought to be avoided," she said, according to the report. The remark was seen as reflecting concern that Japan may send forces to the Korean Peninsula in the name of aiding the U.S. in the event of war with North Korea. Japanese boots on the peninsula are one of the last things South Koreans want to see due to painful memories of Japan's colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945. jschang@yna.co.kr (END)