South Korean president-elect Park Geun-hye will not tolerate provocations from the North but is open to dialogue with Pyongyang, a special envoy said.

The statement came just hours after a defiant North Korea declared it would continue further rocket launches and atomic tests targeting the US.

Park is strongly urging North Korea to refrain from conducting a third nuclear test that could only worsen the tensions in the Korean peninsula, envoy Rhee In-je told AP.

“President-elect Park makes it clear that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and further provocations against the South Will not be tolerated,” Rhee said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“In particular, she strongly urges North Korea to refrain from further worsening the situation by conducting a third nuclear test”.

Pyongyang retaliated Friday by threatening South Korea of “strong physical countermeasures” if Seoul takes part in US-backed resolution aimed at sanctioning North Korea for its rocket launch in December which have wracked the region.

The National Defense Commission also declared that the regime is prepared to conduct a nuclear test in defiance of UN resolution which condemned the rocket launch as violation of a ban against missile activity.

“Sanctions mean war and a declaration of war against us,” the Committee for Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the KCNA.