N. Korea threatens to sink Japan's four main islands into the sea with nuclear bomb

North Korea has again threatened to sink Japan into the sea with a nuclear bomb and said the U.S. should be "beaten to death like a rabid dog" after the latest sanctions on the shipment of oil products by UN Security Council in response to Pyongyang's recent nuclear test.

It is the first time that Pyongyang has issued an explicit threat to Japan since it fired a medium-range ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido at the end of last month, triggering emergency sirens and mass text alerts.

"The four islands of the Japanese archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche," the committee said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency. Juche is the ideology of self-reliance pioneered by Kim Il-sung, the country's founder and grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un.

The Security Council on Monday unanimously approved a US-drafted resolution, which bans Kim Jong-un's Government from exporting textiles and restricts the shipment of oil products.

Reacting to the vote on Thursday, North Korea said the US ought to "be beaten to death" for spearheading the penalties.

The Korea Asia-Pacific peace committee, which oversees North Korea's relations with the outside world, described the UN Security Council, which passed a new round of sanctions on Monday, as a "tool of evil" in the pay of Washington, and called for it to be broken up, the Guardian reported.

"The adoption of heinous 'sanctions resolution' hardens our faith that what we should depend on is only our self-defensive nuclear force," the statement said, stressing North Korea's resolve to accelerate nuclear and missile development.

In 1993, the Council approved Resolution 825 calling on North Korea to remain in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That didn't work. North Korea withdrew from the treaty and continued its nuclear pursuit.

In 2006, the Six Party Talks faltered, and North Korea conducted several ballistic missile launches. That led to Resolution 1695 condemning them.

The same year, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. That led to Resolution 1718, establishing a UN sanctions regime, aiming to stop all nuclear, ballistic missile, and other weapons of mass destruction programs.