A senior North Korean diplomat said Friday in Moscow that her country's nuclear weapons and missiles would only be used to deal with the threat posed by the United States.

"Our weapons are meant for protecting our motherland from the permanent U.S. nuclear threat," Choe Son Hui, the head of the North American section at her country's Foreign Ministry, said in an address at the Moscow Non-Proliferation Conference, according to Russia's state-run Tass news agency.

"Our leader Kim Jong Un has explained our stance: we will coerce the Americans to peace and respond to fire with fire. We have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but we will not use them if there is no threat," Choe said.

"By now we have practically come close to a final balance with the United States. Our ultimate goal is to achieve a balance with the United States to ensure it does not dare to speak about any military actions against the DPRK," she said.

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DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's formal name.

Russia's RIA news agency quoted Choe as saying that North Korea "lives under the constant threat of a nuclear attack by the U.S."

She cited this week's "unprecedented" joint naval drills between the United States and South Korea that began Monday and ended earlier Friday, involving about 40 vessels including an aircraft carrier, as well as recent B1-B strategic bomber flights over the Korean Peninsula.

"Every action triggers a counter-action," she warned.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Choe as telling reporters that she has no intention of meeting with U.S. or South Korean representatives during her stay in Moscow.

"I am not planning such meetings," she said.

There had been speculation that Choe might meet with former U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who was involved in negotiating the Iranian nuclear deal, and Robert Einhorn, a former State Department special advisor on nonproliferation, on the sidelines of the Moscow conference, as she did in May when she met with former U.S. government officials in Norway's capital Oslo.

South Korea has sent Lee Sang Hwa, director general for North Korean nuclear affairs, to attend the Moscow meeting, but South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu Duk told reporters Thursday that there was "no plan for now" for him to meet with Choe.

At the ASEAN Regional Forum held in the Philippines in August, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha spoke informally with her North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho for about 3 minutes.