Report: North Korea threatens 'pre-emptive nuclear attack'

KCNA via EPA

North Korean soldiers cheer during combat training at an undisclosed location on Wednesday.

North Korea threatened to exercise its "right to pre-emptive nuclear attack" Thursday as Pyongyang ratcheted up its rhetoric ahead of a United Nations vote on new sanctions.  

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to pre-emptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest,'' the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency. NBC News could not immediately confirm the statement. However, the remarks were also reported by media outlets including The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, the South Korean military said it would strike back at North Korea and target its top leadership if Pyongyang attacks.

Tensions have ratcheted higher across the Korean Peninsula since the North, under youthful leader Kim Jong Un who took office just over a year ago after the death of his father, launched a long-range rocket last December.

He followed this with a third nuclear test on February 12, triggering the prospect of more U.N. sanctions that are due to be formally announced on Thursday after the United States and China, the North's one major diplomatic ally, struck a deal to punish Pyongyang. 

Earlier in the week, Pyongyang threatened to end the 60-year truce that ended the Korean war. 

Saber-rattling?
Angus Walker, a Beijing-based correspondent with NBC News' partner ITV News, said the current consensus was that North Korea did not have a missile that was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

"There is always a lot of saber-rattling when the U.S. and South Korea stage large-scale military exercises," he said.

The North does have smaller missiles, as seen during military parades, and South Korea's capital Seoul is within artillery range.

While the North has in the past threatened to hit Seoul with a "rain of fire," claiming it can launch 250,000 artillery shells in an hour at the South Korean capital, the reality is that those artillery batteries could be destroyed very quickly, Walker said.  

Slideshow: North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

Launch slideshow

War-game scenarios have suggested that a war on the peninsula would be over quickly, with the North under U.S. and South Korean control within 24 hours, Walker said.

South Korea's new President Park Geun-hye recently promised to engage with the North if it dropped its nuclear ambitions.  

The U.N. Security Council measures expected to be approved later on Thursday would ban the sale of items coveted by North Korea's elite, like racing cars and yachts, a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The new measures would hit North Korea's financial transactions, which often involve cash couriers that make them hard to trace, and its criminal activities such as drugs and counterfeiting.