Pyongyang, Oct 4 (IANS): North Korea vowed Friday to continue "simultaneously pushing forward the building of nuclear force and economic construction" while urging South Korean President Park Geun-hye to "behave with discretion".

Park should not try to make North Korea "change" and force it to dismantle nuclear weapons, a spokesman for North Korea's policy department of the National Defence Commission said, reported Xinhua.

"Now that the hard-won atmosphere of dialogue and peace is turning into that of confrontation and tension on the Korean Peninsula, Park and her group should face up to the desire of the nation and the trend of the times and behave with discretion," said the spokesman, according to the official KCNA news agency.

The spokesman stressed that the army and people of North Korea would invariably advance their own way, while simultaneously pushing for building nuclear force and economic construction to build a prosperous country.

In a speech to mark the 65th Armed Forces Day Tuesday, Park said that South Korea should create a strong deterrent against possible nuclear threats from North Korea, in a bid to force the North Korean leadership to recognise that its missiles and nuclear weapons will be useless.