North Korea’s nuclear test draws tough sanction plan from China, U.S., Pyongyang threatens to end 1953 ceasefire

This undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via the Korean News Service (KNS) on February 21, 2013 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting Korean People's Army Unit 323.

UNITED NATIONS — The world moved closer to punishing North Korea for its latest nuclear test Tuesday as the United States introduced a draft resolution, backed by China, with new sanctions aimed at reining in Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and preventing their export to other countries.

In response, Pyongyang threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

The draft resolution would subject North Korea “to some of the toughest sanctions imposed by the United Nations,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters. She called the scope of the sanctions “exceptional.”

The proposed resolution, worked out by Rice and China’s U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong over the last three weeks, reflects the growing anger of the U.N.’s most powerful body at North Korea’s defiance of three previous sanctions resolutions that demanded a halt to all nuclear and missile tests.

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