Park renews calls for peaceful unification with North Korea

President Park Geun-hye renewed calls Friday for a peaceful unification with North Korea on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule.

Liberation Day, which falls on Saturday, is one of the major holidays in both Koreas, Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into the capitalistic South and communist North after its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. The peninsula is still at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

"Now, let us open the door for a peaceful unification based on this great accomplishment," Park said in a video message to participants at a peace concert near the border with North Korea.

She was referring to South Korea's meteoric economic rise over the past seven decades, in a dramatic rags-to-riches success story that has no parallel in recent history.

Tensions on the peninsula have escalated after two South Korean soldiers were maimed on Aug. 4, when they stepped on landmines that South Korea said were planted by North Korea inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

On Friday, North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission denied Pyongyang's involvement in the landmine attack and demanded that Seoul provide solid proof.