"I urge [North Korea] to immediately stop developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and halt its threats of provocations against South Korea," the president said in Seoul at the ceremony to mark South Korean liberation from Japanese colonial rule as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
She defended the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in the country in light of the alleged threat from the North.
"We want North Korea to become a normal member of the international community that respects the universal rights of mankind, and international obligations and norms," she pointed out.
On August 3, North Korea fired a ballistic missile from its eastern shore. It traveled hundreds of miles before plunging into the Sea of Japan not far from the northern Japanese coast. The UN Security Council Resolution 2270 dated March 2 urges North Korea to stop all activities on its ballistic missile program.
In July, South Korea and the United States announced that they had agreed to deploy the THAAD missile system in the South Korean Seongju County amid increased tensions on the peninsula.
