South Korea does not consider North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent calls for military talks as being a formal offer to engage in cross-border dialogue, Seoul's Unification Ministry's spokesman said Wednesday.

This stance comes as Kim raised the prospects for a resumption of long-dormant inter-Korean talks at North Korea's high-profile Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) congress that ended Monday.

"It does not constitute a proposal toward South Korea," said Jeong Joon-hee, spokesman at the ministry handling inter-Korean relations.

The government is aware of Kim's remarks on military talks, but "they are only an expression of North Korea's perception of the current reality and its position on it," the official said, again ruling out the possibility of bilateral talks.

The North Korean leader, who was named as the chairman of the North's ruling party and made clear he had no intention of giving up the country's nuclear weapons, did stress the need for dialogue between the military authorities of the two Koreas to achieve unification and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Jeong then said if the North makes an official proposal for talks, Seoul will make a decision to accept or reject it based on an examination of all details. He said for now, Seoul views any talk offers as a propaganda ploy that lacks sincerity.

He cited continued military intimidations by North Korea and the country's unwillingness to discard its nuclear weapons as reasons behind Seoul's hard-line position at this juncture. (Yonhap)