North Korea vowed a nuclear attack on the U.S. on Thursday March 7, saying the country would turn Washington into a "sea of fire."

The threat comes in the wake of extensive new sanctions imposed Thursday by the United Nations. The U.S. and China drafted the resolution, which was passed unanimously and which will place penalties on North Korean travel, banking and trade.

"The strength, breadth and severity of these sanctions will raise the cost to North Korea of its illicit nuclear program," said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice. "Taken together, these sanctions will bite and bite hard."

Over the past few days North Korea has become increasingly threatening, even calling the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War no longer applicable. On Thursday the country claimed the ability to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the U.S., which it perceives as joining with South Korea to plan a war against it.

"Now that the U.S. is set to light a fuse for a nuclear war, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) will exercise the right to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors and to defend the supreme interests of the country," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement by the country's Korean Central News Agency.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice responded to the threats with disdain.

"North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and provocations," Rice said. "These will only further isolate the country and its people and undermine international efforts to promote peace and stability in northeast Asia."

North Korea launched a rocket from Pyongyang in December and conducted its third nuclear test on Feb. 12. The acts subverted three Security Council resolutions.

Despite the recent threats, it is not believed that North Korea yet has the ability to create a warhead capable of reaching the U.S.