UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton has confirmed that the U.S. State Department is now exploring prospective new punitive measures via the United Nations if North Korea tests another atomic weapon.
Last Saturday, the Security Council unanimously voted to impose a series of economic and military sanctions on Pyongyang.
North Korea's U.N. ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, rejected the Council action, called the sanctions "gangster-like" and then bolted from the U.N. chamber.
Since that "performance," KCNA, North Korea's official news agency, has declared the U.N. action tantamount to a "declaration of war," and promised that more nuclear tests were to come.
Story Continues Below
That threat was repeated by senior North Korean officials and state television on Tuesday.
Reacting to the North Korean comments, Bolton confirmed that the United States was indeed taking "precautionary" measures and was preparing a list of new "actions" Washington would like the U.N. to take should Pyongyang continue to flaunt the Security Council's warnings.
The U.S. representative declined to offer any specifics on what the Bush administration may seek to further isolate the reclusive Stalinist regime.
The most recent U.S. move comes as NewsMax learns the FBI's New York office has launched a probe into the activities of the North Korean U.N. mission and its relationship with the local Korean community.
Action by the FBI "could come in the near future," confessed one South Korean source familiar with the investigation.