‍The DPRK is ready to react to any "mode of war" from the United States - any missile or nuclear strike by the United States would be responded to "in kind...if the US dares opt for a military action," said DPRK's Deputy UN Ambassador Kim In Ryong, at a UN press conference in New York on Monday.

While reporters at the United Nations have heard similar rhetoric from the DPRK before, Monday's forceful wording seemed to be even more dramatic and on a higher level.

"The US is disturbing the global peace and stability and insisting on the gangster-like logic that its invasion of a sovereign state is 'decisive, and just, and proportionate' and contributes to 'defending' the international order in its bid to apply it to the Korean Peninsula as well." Kim told reporters through reading a statement, “It has created a dangerous situation in which thermonuclear war may break out at any moment on the peninsula and poses a serious threat to world peace and security.”

The United Nations is "deeply concerned about the rising tensions that we've seen in the Korean Peninsula," Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told journalists on Monday, calling on “all to redouble their diplomatic efforts.”

"All Security Council resolutions must be fully implemented and we note that the Security Council has consistently stated its commitment to peaceful, diplomatic and political solution," he added.

The Security Council has passed more than 20 resolutions imposing ever-tightening sanctions on the DPRK because of its nuclear and missile programs.

Pyongyang had sent letters demanding its own hearing at the Security Council for alleged US abuses, but they have been ignored by a council which has seen numerous council resolutions violated by DPRK's missile and nuclear tests.‍

In terms of the failed missile launch that the DPRK staged over the weekend, Dujarric described it as “troubling,” before saying that the UN “calls on the DPRK to take all the steps necessary to deescalate the situation and return to a dialogue on denuclearization.”

However, the DPRK will continue to test missiles “on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis,” despite international condemnation and growing military tensions with the US, reported BBC citing the DPRK’s Vice FM Han Song Ryol.

According to observers, the DPRK’s sixth nuclear test may be carried out soon. 

The press conference was held hours after US Vice President Mike Pence visited the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War. Pence warned the DPRK not to “test the resolve” of the US or the “strength of our military forces.” Pence said over the weekend that “the era of strategic patience is over.”

The DPRK is upset about the upcoming meeting of the Security Council on April 28 that is scheduled to be chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, which will focus on the DPRK's nuclear program. 

“I strongly censure and categorically reject the convening of a briefing on DPRK nuclear issue as another abuse of authority, behavior of double standards and violation of the DPRK's sovereignty by the UN Security Council acting under instructions of the United States,” said Kim In Ryong.

Kim also condemned the US naval buildup in the waters off the Korean Peninsula, plus the US missile attacks on a Syrian air base earlier this month.

In response to the deployment of an aircraft carrier-led group of US naval ships to the seas just east of the DPRK, the ambassador said, "The US introduces into the Korean Peninsula, the world's biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets, seriously threatening peace and security of the peninsula and pushing the situation there to the brink of war."

"This has created a dangerous situation in which a thermo-nuclear war may break out at any moment," he said.