The United States has reiterated it will not hold talks for talk’s sake with North Korea.

The U.S. also dismissed China's proposal that the U.S. suspend its joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for North Korea giving up its ballistic missile and nuclear program.

In a regular briefing Thursday local time, U.S. State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. is ready to have serious discussions about denuclearization if North Korea take steps to show it's ready for such talks.

Toner said that in the absence of any kind of positive signals from the North, the U.S. needs to look at ways to continue to apply pressure on the regime to convince them to end its nuclear program.

Regarding China’s proposal for the North to halt its nuclear program and Seoul and Washington to halt military drills, the spokesman said there is no equivalence between North Korea’s illegal missile and nuclear activities and the U.S.' lawful, longstanding joint security exercises with its allies in the region.

He said the exercises have been going on for the past roughly 40 years and so it shouldn’t be a surprise. He added they are transparent and carried out openly under the Combined Forces Command.

Toner said the U.S. is not going to stop the exercises that are defensive in nature in order to convince North Korea to stop what it’s doing.

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