UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved tough new sanctions against North Korea over its latest nuclear test, brushing aside Pyongyang’s threat of nuclear retaliation against the United States and other nations it labels aggressors.

Voting unanimously, the 15-member council condemned North Korea for its Feb. 12 test and imposed sanctions aimed at making it more difficult for the country to finance its weapons programs and obtain materials for them.

Additional Photos

North Koreans attend a rally this week in Pyongyang to support a Supreme Command statement that vows to cancel the 1953 cease-fire ending the Korean War. A billboard in the background depicts a bayonet pointed at U.S. soldiers that reads: “If you dare invade, only death will be waiting for you!” The Associated Press

Before the vote, North Korea issued statements describing Washington as a “criminal threatening global peace” and threatening preemptive nuclear action.

Soon afterward, North Korean officials announced they were canceling a hotline with the United States and the armistice that closed the Korean War in 1953.

The sanctions resolution was drafted by the United States and China — long the chief ally and benefactor of the North.

The resolution expands and tightens a range of financial and diplomatic sanctions intended to curtail Pyongyang’s ability to threaten the world with its nuclear programs and cut off the leadership’s ability to travel and acquire luxury goods such as yachts and racing cars.

The action builds on a raft of existing sanctions that have been imposed on North Korea since it launched the first of three nuclear tests in 2006. The new measures were crafted to further limit access to the international financial system by North Korean banks and firms, while imposing greater constraints on the North’s ability to transport potentially illicit cargo around the world. The council also warned that it would take “further significant measures” against Pyongyang if it carried out another nuclear or ballistic missile test.

“Taken together, these sanctions will bite, and bite hard,” Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote.

“The strength, breadth and severity of these sanctions will raise the cost to North Korea of its illicit nuclear program and further constrain its ability to finance and source materials and technology for its ballistic missile, conventional and nuclear weapons programs.”

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