The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously for new and tougher sanctions against North Korea, demonstrating unified anger at the Asian country for its recent harsh rhetoric against its enemies and threatening a "preemptive nuclear attack."
Analysts measure that North Korea is still years away from having the technology necessary to accurately fire a nuclear warhead to its target.
North Korea took the bold step to plan on scrapping the armistice that stopped the stopped the Korean War in 1953. Its leader Kim Jong Un also threatened to strike the United States and South Korea.
A spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry suggested the U.S. "is set to light a fuse for a nuclear war," CNN reported. North Korea "will exercise the right to a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors and to defend the supreme interests of the country," the statement said.
In return South Korea responded to the threats, stating that it would retaliate "strong and sternly" against North's military command and forces if the "lives and safety of South Koreans" came under threat, CNN reported.
North Korea's underground nuclear blast it conducted on Feb. 12 was more powerful than prior detonation, as they used a smaller and lighter device. Experts suggests this means they have made advances in its weapons program. February's nuclear test was the first in North Korea since Kim inherited power from his father Kim Jong Il in December 2011. The test followed North Korea's long-range rocket launch in December that succeeded in putting an object in orbit, claiming at the time that the launch had peaceful ambitions.
"We regret that North Korea has again chosen the path of provocation, instead of the path of peace," the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said.
President Barack Obama's predecessor George W. Bush famously declared North Korea as one of the members of the "Axis of Evil" in a State of the Union speech during his presidency.
