SEOUL, August 15. /ITAR-TASS/. South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday again urged North Korea (DPRK) to give up its nuclear weapons program and accept Seoul’s recent proposal to hold high-level talks aimed at improving the strained bilateral relations.

“Now, North Korea should abandon its nuclear programs and join the international community,” Park said in a televised Liberation Day address marking the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

In her televised address to the nation on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of Korea’s liberation she suggested that North Korea should follow in the footsteps of Kazakhstan in giving up nuclear weapons and emulate Vietnam and Myanmar, which opted for reform and openness, noting those countries enjoy peace and prosperity.

The comments came a day after North Korea fired five short-range rockets into the sea off the country’s east coast, the latest show of force that coincided with a trip to South Korea by Pope Francis, the first visit to Seoul by a pontiff in 25 years, Yonhap news agency reported.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided the latest test-fire of rockets, which Pyongyang said was designed to mark the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).