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- Feb 26, 2013
- Updated: 10:21am
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Park Geun-Hye
Park Geun-hye is the daughter of South Korea's former dictator, the late president Park Chung-hee. On December 19, 2012, Park - a Conservative - narrowly won the election to make history as South Korea's first female president. Born on February 2, 1952, she was the chairwoman of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) between 2004 and 2006 and between 2011 and 2012 (the GNP changed its name to Saenuri Party in February 2012). Park has already served as South Korea's first lady, after her mother was killed in the 1970s.
South Korean leader Park asks North to end nuclear agenda
South Korea’s new president Park Geun-hye tells Pyongyang to halt its nuclear arms programme
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South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, has urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and to stop wasting its scarce resources on arms - less than two weeks after the North carried out its third nuclear test.
In her inauguration speech on Monday, the country's first female president offered North Korea aid and trade if it abandoned its nuclear programme.
"I urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without delay and embark on the path to peace and shared development," Park said.
Park, usually an austere and demure figure in her public appearances, wore an olive-drab military style jacket and lavender scarf and smiled broadly and waved excitedly as a 70,000-strong crowd cheered her on.
"I have trust in her as the first female president ... she has to be more aggressive on North Korea," said Jeong Byung-ok, 44, who was at the ceremony with her four-year-old daughter.
Park replaced Lee Myung-bak, her nemesis who beat her in the 2007 ruling party primary to win the presidential nomination.
At her inauguration, a band played a military march before a large crowd including notable female foreign guests such as State Councillor Liu Yandong , the highest-ranking female politician in China, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Australia's first woman governor-general, Quentin Bryce.
The North, which is facing further UN sanctions for its latest nuclear test, is unlikely to heed Park's call and there is little Seoul can do to influence its bellicose neighbour.
As Park was sworn in as president, North Korea's state media continued its typical rhetoric against South Korea and the US over annual military drills that Pyongyang says are an invasion rehearsal.
"The US warmongers should think what consequence will be brought out for getting on the nerves of the DPRK, a dignified nuclear power," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.
Park's last stint in the presidential Blue House was bookended by tragedy. At 22, she cut short her studies in Paris to return to Seoul and act as President Park Chung-hee's first lady after an assassin targeting her father instead killed her mother. In 1979, her father was shot and killed by his spy chief at a drinking party.
Reuters, Associated Press
