ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
President Park Geun-hye said on Wednesday (May 8) South Korea is facing down North Korea's threats "resolutely but calmly" and called on Pyongyang to end the cycle of tension and short-lived stability on the Korean peninsula.
In her address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Park said South Korea's stable financial markets and strong economic fundamentals showed Seoul was unbowed by 10 weeks of nuclear war threats from North Korea.
"The Korean government is reacting resolutely but calmly. We are maintaining the highest level of readiness," she said in English to loud applause in a packed U.S. Capitol.
"You may rest assured: no North Korean provocation will succeed," Park said. She echoed lines from her show of solidarity with President Barack Obama at the White House a day earlier, when Obama said Pyongyang had failed to rattle their alliance of 60 years and gained nothing from saber-rattling.
The 61-year-old daughte
