SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's top military officer nominee said Friday that he was not considering the scaling-down of the joint war games with the United States as a way of diplomatic negotiations in resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Air Force Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo, the Air Force chief of staff, who was nominated to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), made the remarks during a parliamentary confirmation hearing.

The remarks came as some of liberal scholars here claimed the reduction of the annual U.S.-South Korea war games in exchange for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) halt of its nuclear and missile provocations to launch talks for the denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

Tensions de-escalated on the peninsula after U.S. President Donald Trump praised top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un for his decision to delay the threatened missile strike on the waters off the U.S. island of Guam in the Pacific.

The war of words between Pyongyang and Washington had fuelled tensions in the past weeks.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in reiterated the importance for dialogue with Pyongyang, though it takes time, during his speech to mark the 100th day in office Thursday.

Amid the dialogue atmosphere, the combined forces of South Korea and the United States were scheduled to kick off their joint annual war games, codenamed Ulchi Freedom Guardian which would last for 10 days, on Monday.

The DPRK has denounced it as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion, though the two allies insisted on the nature of defense of the annually-held computer-assisted simulation exercises.

South Korea's JCS chief nominee told lawmakers in the hearing that it would be important to dissuade the DPRK from its possession of nuclear weapons through dialogue and pressure.

He said the eventual goal was the denuclearized peninsula, noting that the freezing of the DPRK's nuclear program would be necessary in the middle stage as the eventual goal can not be achieved at a time.