A senior North Korean official indicated Thursday that the country will not resume inter-Korean talks as long as the United States and South Korea continue their ongoing joint military drills, according to state-run media.

"Unless the serious situation which led to the suspension of the north-south high-level talks is settled, it will never be easy to sit face to face again with the present regime of south Korea," Ri Son Gwon, head of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency.

On Wednesday, North Korea suddenly cancelled a ministerial-level meeting with the South planned for that day, criticizing the joint military drills carried out by Seoul and Washington for undermining a recent inter-Korean thaw.

[Korea Summit Press Pool]

Pyongyang also threatened to cancel an upcoming summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, in an apparent attempt to test Washington, which has called on the North to abandon all of its nuclear weapons.

At the planned summit, Kim is expected to demand a pledge by Trump that the United States will accept the continuation of North Korea's hereditary regime, in return for Pyongyang vowing to achieve denuclearization in a "phased" and "synchronized" manner.