Pyongyang's threat comes as the U.S. asked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last week to vote on new sanctions Monday in response to the North's most powerful nuclear test.
North Korea's foreign ministry said it will make the U.S. pay a "due price" if Washington goes ahead with the vote on a resolution on harsher sanctions.
"The forthcoming measures to be taken by the DPRK will cause the U.S. the greatest pain and suffering it had ever gone through in its entire history," said the Korean Central News Agency, reporting a ministry statement in English.
The DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
On Sept. 3, North Korea detonated what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb that can fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Media reports said that the U.S. circulated a draft resolution that includes the suspension of oil supplies to the North, export bans on textiles and labor, and asset freezes on leader Kim Jong-un.
But it is not certain how much China and Russia -- veto-wielding permanent members of the UNSC -- will cooperate in Washington's efforts to slap the toughest sanctions to date on Pyongyang, source from the Yonhap.
