The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which is in charge of handling relations with South Korea, made the remarks days after Park offered to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang, saying she was willing to "activate the trust-building process" on the peninsula.
Park offered talks as operations at an inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong grounded to a halt last week. Pyongyang banned South Korean managers from entering the park on April 3 amid sky-high tensions over weeks of warlike threats from North Korea.
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The offer of dialogue is "a cunning ploy to hide the South's policy of confrontation and mislead its responsibility for putting the Kaesong Industrial Complex into a crisis," said a spokesman for the North's committee in an article carried by the North's state news agency.
The North's committee also described the South's offer of dialogue as an "empty shell" and blamed South Korea and the U.S. for raising tensions with their annual joint military drills, which will be wrapped up by the end of this month.
"Under these circumstances, is it possible to hold a dialogue? ... Such a dialogue would be meaningless," said the spokesman for the North's committee.
In response to the North's rejection of Seoul's offer of dialogue, the presidential office expressed regret and urged Pyongyang to implement safety measures for South Korean workers still at the Kaesong Industrial complex.
"South Korean workers in the Kaesong complex started their business under the inter-Korean agreement, but they are now suffering as (the North) unilaterally blocked personnel and materials from going to the factories," Ju Chul-ki, the senior presidential foreign affairs secretary, said in a late night briefing. "The ban on food entry is unacceptable on humanitarian grounds."
"We strongly urge the North Korean government to take responsible measures to help South Korean workers (in the complex)," Ju said.
Responding to the North's initial reaction to the offer of dialogue, a senior official at Seoul's unification ministry said he is circumspect about judging it as a refusal to the overture from South Korea.
"The stance expressed by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea is the first-hand reaction to the offer of dialogue, based on the North's existing position," the ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.
The unification ministry "will watch the situation for the time being" on whether the North would accept the offer of dialogue.
Many analysts in Seoul believe that North Korea won't back off on its heady rhetoric until the joint military drills between Seoul and Washington conclude.
North Korea withdrew all of its 53,000 workers and temporarily suspended operations at the Kaesong complex, the last-remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, early last week amid indications that it was ready to launch a mid-range ballistic missile.
As tensions soared, Park made the strongest overture of dialogue yet toward North Korea on Thursday, telling a meeting with ruling party lawmakers that she intends to "talk with North Korea" and continue humanitarian assistance to the impoverished nation regardless of political and security tensions, according to participants.
On the same day, her point man on North Korea, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, urged Pyongyang to step forward to the negotiating table to resolve the suspension of operations at Kaesong.
The remarks were seen as Park's clearest overture yet toward Pyongyang and show that she is shifting the focus of her North Korea policy to dialogue, experts said, though she also renewed her commitment to deal strongly with North Korean provocations as a matter of principle.
On Friday in Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he supported Park's offer of dialogue, but warned that North Korea would make a "huge mistake" if it launches a missile.]
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