North Korea has said it will continue its nuclear and ballistic missile programme in defiance of the United States and its allies.
The country's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, So Se Pyong, said a state of "semi-war" now existed in the divided peninsula.
He said military exercises involving South Korea and the US were aimed at "decapitation of the supreme leadership of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)".
"If the United States continues, then we have to make the counter-measures also. So we have to develop, and we have to make more deterrence, nuclear deterrence," he said.
The diplomat added: "The de-nuclearisation of the peninsula has gone."
His comments came after North Korea fired a missile into the sea just hours after South Korea, Japan and the US warned Pyongyang to end its provocations.
The surface-to-air missile was fired from a region close to the North's eastern coast, according to a South Korean military official.
Yonhap news agency reported it flew a distance of around 100km (62 miles).
Tensions have heightened on the Pyongyang-Seoul border since the North's nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.
Friday's drill is the fourth missile launch by Kim Jong-Un's regime in recent weeks - and the second in four days - amid military exercises involving South Korea and the US, the largest ever carried out by the two nations.
It comes as President Barack Obama, his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to pressure the secretive state over its nuclear programme.
The three leaders met on the sidelines of a global nuclear summit in Washington aimed at reducing the risk caused by the proliferation of nuclear technology.
Mr Obama said: "We are united in our efforts to deter and defend against North Korean provocations. We have to work together to meet this challenge."
Mr Obama also held separate talks with President Xi Jinping of China, the closest North Korea has to an ally,
Both said they wanted to see "full implementation" of the latest United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang.
Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from conducting any ballistic missile test.
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