A top North Korean official on Wednesday urged South Korea to pursue "mutual efforts" to reduce tensions on the peninsula, warning that a decision earlier in the day by leader Kim Jong Un to suspend planned military action could be reversed should Seoul make the wrong move.

The comments by Kim Yong Chol -- who serves as a vice chairman at the Central Committee of North Korea's ruling party -- came in response to remarks by South Korean defense minister Jeong Kyeong-doo at a hearing of the country's National Assembly earlier in the day.