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The new South Korean president, Park Guen-hye, steps into office at a particularly challenging time, with archnemesis North Korea's own recently installed leader rattling missiles and nuclear weapons in an apparent attempt to solidify his hold on power.

Park — the 61-year-old daughter of the late military dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled the country for nearly two decades — took the oath of office Monday, just two weeks after Pyongyang defied international pressure to conduct its third nuclear test.

Addressing the Korean people, she warned the North that she "will not tolerate any action that threatens the lives of our people and the security of our nation." But she also signaled a desire to move ahead with a campaign promise for trust-building with Pyongyang "on the basis of credible deterrence."

According to The Guardian, Park has "made conciliatory gestures toward the North. She met the regime's former leader, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang in 2002 and noted in her 2007 autobiography that Kim had apologized for a failed raid on the South Korean presidential Blue House by 31 North Korean commandos in 1968."

In a piece written for Foreign Affairs in 2011, she outlined her "middle-path" approach to relations with the North:

"Previous governments in Seoul have alternatively attempted to engage and deter Pyongyang. The ones that have emphasized accommodation and inter-Korean solidarity have placed inordinate hope in the idea that if the South provided sustained assistance to the North, the North would abandon its bellicose strategy toward the South. But after years of such attempts, no fundamental change has come. Meanwhile, the governments in Seoul that have placed a greater emphasis on pressuring North Korea have not been able to influence its behavior in a meaningful way, either.

A new policy is needed: an alignment policy, which should be buttressed by public consensus and remain constant in the face of political transitions and unexpected domestic or international events."