Peace Bell Park is sited in Hwacheon county, northeast of the South Korean capital Seoul, and was the scene of fierce battles during the 1950-53 Korean War.

It features a large bell made of melted bullet casings gathered from many conflicts around the world, including the Korean one.

'Peace Bell Park represents our dream of world peace. We hope all the hearts of the people around the world will ring with its sound eternally,' county governor Jung Gab-Cheol told the dedication ceremony.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said at a seminar to mark the dedication that strong reactions by other countries to Monday's nuclear test would only compel the North to stick to its atomic weapons.

'If the United Nations and participants in the six-party (nuclear disarmament) talks take strong steps against the North, it would consider the nuclear weapons as its last resort and stick to them,' Mr Gorbachev said.

'(South Korea) should find out what the North's misgivings are and help it with aid and economic cooperation in order to lead it to dialogue,' he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

The park is next to the huge Peace Dam on the Bukhan River, whose construction began in the 1980s under the then-military government. Authorities said it was necessary in case the communist North breached its own dam upstream to intentionally flood the Bukhan River, a tributary of the Han which flows through Seoul.

The government began a controversial campaign for donations. Critics at the time said the Seoul government was exaggerating threats from the North to justify its authoritarian rule over the South.

Some 60 other bells in different shapes and sizes, sent from 29 countries, are also on display at the peace park. -- AFP