North Korea:U.S. Will Take 'All Necessary Steps' To Protect Its People

President Obama

President Barack Obama says now is the time for North Korea to end its belligerence. He says the United States will take, in his words, "all necessary steps" to protect its people.

But Obama also says that no one wants to see a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea ratcheted up its threats against the U.S. after the U.N. Security Council levied new economic sanctions on the isolated nation. The penalties were in response to a February rocket launch.

Obama spoke alongside U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after the two met in the Oval Office.

North Korean killers in heels: Female soldiers spotted patrolling border

It came on another tense day on the Korean peninsula, where images of four female soldiers in heels and Soviet-style hats were released in the latest act of bravado from madman dictator Kim Jong Un.

They were accompanied by a fresh round of rhetoric by the pariah state which claims it had 'powerful striking means' on standby for a launch.The official statement is the latest in a torrent of warlike threats seen outside Pyongyang as an effort to raise fears and pressure Seoul and Washington into changing their North Korea policy.

North Korea was however today warned it faced fresh sanctions if it went ahead with a predicted missile test in the escalating nuclear stand-off with its neighbours and their Western allies.Following a meeting of the G8 nations in London, foreign ministers said they had committed themselves to 'further significant measures' if the went ahead with the tests.