President Obama: North Korea Needs To Take 'Serious Actions' To Negotiate

President Obama says that the United States isn't taking seriously North Korea's offer to end its missile program.
 
North Korea foreign minister announced Saturday that his country is ready to halt its nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea.
 
Obama responded Sunday at a press conference in Germany. He said if North Korea wants to show that they are serious, then they need to take action and prepare to enter negotiations. 
 
"We don't take seriously a promise to simply halt until the next time they decide to do a test," Obama said. "That's not something that happens based on a press release in the wake of a series of provocative behaviors. They're going to have to do better than that."
 
The U.S Joint Chiefs of Staffs said that North Korea fired what is believed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile near South Korea, which is a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
 
Obama explains that those actions demonstrates that Pyongyang isn't committed to stabilizing the Korean peninsula.

He said, however, that the U.S and the "entire world" is taking North Korea's testing seriously. 
 
He explains this is part of the reason why the U.S. has cultivated cooperation with China. He hopes it will put more pressure on North Korea. 
 
"Although it is not where we would completely like it to be, I will say we've seen the Chinese be more alarmed and take more seriously what North Korea is doing," he said. "They have been willing to be more forward leaning in exacting a price on North Korea's destructive behavior."