Nuclear test is 'people's demand', says North Korea

North Korea has renewed its threat to carry out a third nuclear test, saying it is the demand of the people.

It came a day after Pyongyang said the sanctions adopted earlier this week amounted to a declaration of war, threatening the South with unspecified physical counter-measures. 

The current upsurge in tensions has its roots in Pyongyang's defiant decision to push ahead with a long-range rocket launch on the 12th of last month -- insisting it was a peaceful mission to place a satellite in orbit. 

The rest of the world saw it as a banned ballistic missile test. 

On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that expanded the number of North Korean entities on an international blacklist.

In an unusually frank warning yesterday, China's Global Times, which is close to China's ruling Communist Party, indicated that Beijing would decrease North Korean aid if it went ahead with a third atomic test.