(ABC News) - Diplomats are meeting at the United Nations in New York to tighten sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear tests and missile launchings.
The U.S. says the sanctions would be some of the toughest ever. Even China is now more willing to punish the rogue state and North Korea is pushing back.
As the international community takes another step toward tightening sanctions on North Korea, the rogue regime ramped up it's saber rattling.
Tuesday, Pyongyang threatened to cancel the 1953 cease fire that ended the Korean War.
The warning came as the U.N. Security Council meets behind closed doors to consider new sanctions, a response to the North Koreans' nuclear weapon test last month, which the Obama administration called “highly provocative.”
The device was tested in the base of a mountain and packed at least 7,000 tons of explosive power.
That's about half the size of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
The underground blast sent shockwaves through the Korean peninsula.
Experts believe the North Koreans' nuclear arsenal now includes as many as 12 weapons.
But for all their firepower, the North Koreans lack the ability to make a nuclear weapon small enough to fit on a missile that can reach the mainland US.
Joe Cirincione of Ploughshares Fund, says, “We do have to get used to idea, that for foreseeable future, we may have this persistent problem. It’s a low simmer doesn't boil over or doesn't go away."
China is reportedly onboard with the new U.N. sanctions. So far, no threats from the US or the U.N. have stopped the North Koreans in their pursuit of a nuclear armed missile.
