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

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea on Saturday renewed its threat to carry out a third nuclear test in the latest in a series of bellicose warnings sparked by a tightening of UN sanctions, saying it was 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".

"A nuclear test is the demand of the people," said the Rodong Sinmun, the official daily newspaper of the ruling communist party in a signed commentary titled "We have no other option".

"The people's demand is that we must do something even greater than a nuclear test. The United Nations Security Council has left us with no other options. We have no other ways but to push forward to the final showdown," it said.