President Park Geun-hye said Monday she will "respect and accept" whatever agreement the rival parties make, as she addressed a prolonged parliamentary gridlock over allegations that state agencies attempted to tamper with last year's presidential race.

The remark, made in Park's first budget speech at the National Assembly, appears to leave open the possibility of her accepting the opposition demand for an independent counsel probe into the election scandal, though it is unclear whether her ruling party will agree to the demand.

"At the center of politics is the National Assembly," she said during a nationally televised address. "Should the ruling and opposition parties find an agreement in parliament after sufficient discussions, including various issues that the opposition party has recently been raising, I will respect and accept it."

The speech was watched closely as to whether Park will talk about the opposition demand.

The scandal, which began nearly a year ago, centers on allegations that state agencies, including the National Intelligence Service (NIS), attempted to influence the tight presidential race with online political postings in favor of Park.

The case drew traction last month as fresh allegations emerged that the alleged state meddling was much more extensive than originally thought. Denouncing last year's vote as an illegitimate election, the opposition Democratic Party has been boycotting some of the parliamentary proceedings.

Park has categorically denied any link to the scandal, saying she neither had any knowledge of the agency's alleged wrongdoing nor did she benefit from it. The spy agency has also claimed the online activity was part of its routine anti-North Korea psychological warfare.

The rest of the speech was devoted to appealing the National Assembly to pass a string of economic revitalization bills pending amid the political standoff, stressing Asia's fourth-largest economy is showing signs of recovery, but the momentum would be lost unless those bills are passed.

"We have only rekindled embers (of recovery). It is very important to keep this momentum alive," she said.

The government submitted a 357.7 trillion won (US$336 billion) budget for next year, up 4.6 percent from this year. Park said the government put the biggest focus of the budget on jump-starting the economy and creating jobs.

"Unless these bills are passed at a proper time, our economy, which is showing signs of recovery, may plunge again into the swamp of recession," she said. "I earnestly ask for your cooperation in getting these bills passed through during the current parliamentary session."

Park also pledged to clean up deep-rooted corruption at public firms and agencies while ensuring no taxpayer money is wasted at those agencies. She also said she will disclose all management information at public firms so that such agencies will reform themselves.

On North Korea, Park said she will patiently seek to build trust and improve relations with Pyongyang. She held out the prospect of expanding economic cooperation with the impoverished communist nation if progress is made in the trust-building drive and efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff.

"I hope North Korea will keep its promises to the international community and step forward for dialogue and cooperation," she said.

"In that case, we can link Eurasian railways and open up the Sik Road Express that starts from Busan and runs through to Europe via Russia, China and Central Asia."

Park's address marked the fourth time for a president to make a budget speech in person after former Presidents Roh Tae-woo in 1988, Roh Moo-hyun in 2003 and Lee Myung-bak in 2008. In other cases, the presidents have had their prime ministers read addresses on their behalf. (Yonhap News)