The United States said Thursday it was "fully capable" of defending itself and its allies against any North Korean missile strike, after Pyongyang threatened to launch a nuclear attack.

The U.S. military could deal with any such attack, U.S. officials said, repeating earlier warnings that North Korea would gain nothing by provocations, while stressing they took its threats seriously.

North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for "pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the headquarters of the aggressors" because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.

The United States and China will on Thursday seek to tighten the U.N. sanctions screws on North Korea after its widely condemned nuclear bomb test last month.

After weeks of closed-door talks, the U.N Security Council will vote at 1500 GMT on a resolution proposed by the two key powers that targets North Korean diplomats, finances and access to luxury goods, and blacklists its accused weapons dealers.

South Korea warned Wednesday that it would retaliate against any provocation from North Korea, a day after the North threatened to tear up the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

"If North Korea carries out provocations that threaten the lives and safety of South Koreans, our military will carry out strong and resolute retaliations," Army General Kim Yong-Hyun told reporters.

The United States and China on Tuesday called on the U.N. Security Council to sanction North Korean diplomats and "illicit" cash transfers to step up pressure on Pyongyang's nuclear program.

But the isolated North fueled tensions, threatening to scrap an armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War and warning that it could launch "strong" counter-measures against what it called U.S. hostility.

The United States and China have reached agreement on a new draft sanctions resolution to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, U.N. diplomats said late Monday.

The U.N. Security Council announced that it will hold closed consultations on North Korea and non-proliferation at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) Tuesday. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made, said the United States is expected to circulate a draft resolution to the full council at the meeting. Council members are then expected to send the draft to their capitals for review.

North Korea is preparing for a large-scale military drill in an apparent show of force against ongoing joint South Korea-U.S. exercises, the South's defense ministry said Monday.

The army, navy and air force drill is planned as a follow-up to the North's nuclear test last month and a successful long-range rocket launch in December, ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters.

South Korea's new president Park Geun-Hye offered a "more flexible" engagement with North Korea on Friday if Pyongyang chooses a path of trust-building rather than provocation.

In an annual speech marking Korea's 1919 uprising against Japan's colonial rule, Park urged Pyongyang to understand that "nothing will be gained from nuclear development or provocations save for greater isolation and hardship".

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Mali on the third leg of a European tour so far dominated by the Syrian conflict.

Kerry, who has hailed France's "successful" mission in Mali, will also hold talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and address a joint press conference in the afternoon.

North Korea warned Wednesday that the U.S. mainland was "well within" the range of its nuclear weapons, as Pyongyang continued to ramp up the bellicose rhetoric after its recent nuclear test.

In an article posted on the official Uriminzokkiri website, a member of the Korean National Peace Committee -- a propaganda body -- said the North was now a "fully-independent rocket and nuclear weapons state.”