North Korea on Thursday requested the withdrawal of U.N. sanctions against it and the end of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises as conditions for any talks with Seoul and Washington.

The United States and South Korea "should immediately stop all their provocative acts against the DPRK and apologize for all of them," the North's National Defense Commission said in a statement carried by state-run media, using the shortened version of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The United States has said recently that for it to enter talks, North Korea would have to show a serious commitment to moving away from its nuclear program, something the regime of Kim Jong Un insists it won't do.