North Korea has warned that it would be difficult to continue talks with South Korea unless issues that led to the cancellation of high-level inter-Korean talks were resolved. 

Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, issued the warning on Thursday during an interview with the North's official Korean Central News Agency. 

The senior North Korean official handling inter-Korean affairs said that the direction of future inter-Korean relations will depend on the South's actions. 

The official also criticized Seoul for holding massive joint air drills with the U.S., which he said pledges to maintain a maximum pressure campaign against Pyongyang until the North's complete denuclearization. 

The remarks appear to be a response to the South Korean Unification Ministry's notification to the North a day earlier, in which it expressed regret over the indefinite postponement of the high-level talks Wednesday, and urged the North to return to the table. 

Ri said that South Korea is behaving irrationally by expressing regret or urging the North to do something, instead of deliberating the North's recent move and taking proper steps.

[Photo : YONHAP News]