Negotiations with the United States would be possible only when Washington stops its hostile policy and nuclear threat against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the country's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

"The DPRK is not opposed to dialogue but has no idea of sitting at the humiliating negotiating table with the party brandishing a nuclear stick," an unnamed ministry spokesman was quoted by the official KCNA as saying.

"Worse still, the U.S. claim that it will opt for dialogue when the DPRK shows its will for denuclearization first is a very impudent hostile act of disregarding the line of the Workers' Party of Korea and the law of the DPRK," the spokesman said, adding that dialogue should be based on the principle of respecting sovereignty and equality.

The spokesman also accused the United States of "staging ceaseless DPRK-targeted nuclear war drills."

"The DPRK will escalate its military countermeasures for self-defense unless the U.S. ceases its nuclear war drills and withdraws all its war hardware for aggression," he said.

The spokesman's remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who just concluded a three-nation tour in Asia, expressed Washington's willingness to negotiate with Pyongyang. Endi