President Park Geun-hye began talks Sunday with more than a dozen leaders on regional and global challenges amid worries about terrorism and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
  

Park plans to ask for cooperation from the leaders of the East Asia Summit to help resolve the dispute over North Korea's nuclear program, Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea's presidential office, said ahead of the meeting in Malaysia.
  

The annual summit is meant to discuss regional and international strategic issues. It is composed of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus its eight dialogue partners -- South Korea, China, Japan, the United States, Russia, Australia, India and New Zealand.
  

South Korea, China, Japan, the U.S. and Russia have been involved in the long-stalled negotiations to coax North Korea into abandoning its nuclear program.
  

On Saturday, Park called for regional support to ensure North Korea "makes a strategic decision to abandon its nuclear weapons programs and choose the path of change."
  

She said the North's nuclear issue must be resolved as economic development and growth cannot be achieved without regional peace and stability. She made the comment in the summit with the leaders of ASEAN, China and Japan -- dubbed the ASEAN+3 summit -- in Malaysia.
  

Still, North Korea has repeatedly vowed to develop its economy and nuclear arsenal in tandem, despite repeated warnings from Seoul and Washington that the policy is a dead end for the country.
  

Park's possible encounter with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Kuala Lumpur is also likely to be closely watched among officials and analysts in the region as there is lingering speculation that he might visit North Korea.
  

On Friday, South and North Korea agreed to hold a working-level meeting to prepare for high-level talks next week.
  

The move is part of efforts by the two Koreas to implement the August deal that defused military tensions sparked by a land mine attack blamed on North Korea.
  

The summit is taking place while territorial disputes in the South China Sea, one of the key shipping routes for South Korea and other regional countries, continue to heighten.
  

China has been pushing for land reclamation projects in the South China Sea, creating tension with the U.S. and some Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines.
 
 
Days before the summit, Park and other world leaders held other high-profile summits, where they condemned the recent deadly terrorist attacks in Paris that killed more than 120 people.
 

Kuala Lumpur is the third and last stop on her 10-day tour, which already has taken her to Turkey for the G-20 summit and the Philippines for the APEC summit.
  

Park is set to leave for home later in the day. (Yonhap)