South Korean President Park Geun-hye called Thursday for international pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programs as she met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Park said North Korea's nuclear programs should never be tolerated as they pose a serious threat to the international community as well as Northeast Asia.

"Now, the international community should be united and put pressure on North Korea to make it recognize that it has no future unless it gives up its nuclear programs,” Park said in a summit with Hailemariam, according to presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk.

The comments represent Park’s clear rejection of Pyongyang’s recent repeated overtures for talks with Seoul.

South Korea has said denuclearization steps should be a "top priority" in resuming dialogue with North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called his country a "responsible nuclear state" in the latest sign that he would not give up nuclear programs.

The North has repeatedly pledged to boost its nuclear capability, viewing its nuclear programs as a powerful deterrent against what it claims is Washington's hostile policy towards it.

Hailemariam vowed to make an effort to get African countries to support denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula by exercising Ethiopia's influence on the continent, Jeong said after the summit.

The Ethiopian prime minister also said his country will faithfully enforce the toughest U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea over its fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

Hailemariam said Ethiopia will always stand with South Korea over North Korea’s irresponsible acts, which could destabilize the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Kyou-hyun, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, told reporters that Hailemariam’s strong commitment could give a boost to South Korea in securing cooperation from African countries in implementing the U.N. sanctions.

On Thursday, South Korea also signed a deal with Ethiopia to pursue bilateral defense cooperation and to thwart the possibility that Ethiopia can push for military cooperation with North Korea again.

In 2002, North Korea inked a deal to provide ammunition worth about $3 million to Ethiopia. In 2013, then-North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun visited Ethiopia.

After the summit, Park and Hailemariam watched as their representatives signed some of 40 new memorandums of understanding between the two nations.

The MOUs call for, among other things, South Korea’s provision of a US$500 million loan to Ethiopia from 2016 to 2018, a move that Seoul says will help South Korean companies make inroads into the Northeast African country's market.

Ethiopia -- five times the size of the Korean Peninsula -- is pushing to modernize its roads, electricity and other infrastructure. South Korean companies are seeking to participate in a highway project and others worth about $690 million.

Ethiopia also is pushing to create a textile industrial complex for South Korean companies in a 1-square-kilometer area in Adama, a city in central Ethiopia. It is also considering a move to offer tax benefits to South Korean textile companies to attract investment.

South Korea said its companies can export textile goods to be produced in Ethiopia to the United States and the European Union without tariffs, which could offer a competitive edge to South Korean companies.

South Korea and Ethiopia signed a double taxation avoidance pact that could facilitate South Korean companies’ investments in Ethiopia as the deal could reduce tax burdens on South Korean companies.

Hailemariam proposed that South Korea and Ethiopia cooperate in cybersecurity, with Park suggesting the two countries can cooperate in that area through an MOU that calls for cooperation in information, communication and technology.

Park and Hailemariam agreed to strengthen cooperation in renewable energy, biodiversity and biotechnology.

Hailemariam vowed to make efforts to further spread South Korea’s "Saemaeul Movement," or new community movement, in his country, saying South Korea is a model for Ethiopia’s economic development.

The rural development program, initiated by Park's father, then-President Park Chung-hee in the 1970s, is credited with helping modernize the then-rural South Korean economy.

South Korea -- which has transformed from a key recipient of U.N. aid after the 1950-53 Korean War to a donor country in half a century -- has been sharing its "Saemaeul Movement" experience with developing nations.

Hailemariam also welcomed the Korea Aid program meant to provide health service, food and cultural content to local people.

The summit “provided a basis for further strengthening bilateral cooperation in various fields,” Kim said.

Park’s state visit comes as South Korea is seeking to boost political and economic ties with Africa, which has emerged as a continent of opportunity in recent years.

Park also offered to provide $500,000 each to Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission and to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs over the worst drought that hit Ethiopia in half a century.

Meanwhile, the two countries agreed to hold regular consultations on bilateral and multilateral issues.

Seoul said it shares a special affinity with Ethiopia over the African country's contribution of more than 6,000 troops to help defend South Korea in the Korean War.

The war ended with a cease-fire agreement, not a peace treaty, leaving South and North Korea technically at war.

Also Thursday, Park met with President Mulatu Teshome before attending a state banquet that drew about 350 dignitaries.

Ethiopia is the first stop on Park’s swing through Africa. The trip is set to take her to Kampala, Uganda, and Nairobi, Kenya, for talks with Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. (Yonhap)