China's foreign minister called Wednesday for North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities, and for the US and South Korea to halt military exercises to cool what he called a looming security "crisis."

"To defuse the looming crisis on the (Korean) peninsula, China proposes that as a first step, the DPRK may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the halt of the large-scale US-ROK exercises," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, using the acronyms for the two Koreas.

"This 'suspension for suspension' can help us break out of the security dilemma and bring the parties back to the negotiating table."