Japan PM demands world find 'new means' to halt threat from North Korea

United Nations: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Monday demanded that the world find a new way to halt the threat from North Korea after the long-sanctioned regime's nuclear and missile tests.

Abe, addressing the UN General Assembly, said that calculations about North Korea needed to change after its latest actions including the state's test of what it said was a miniaturized nuclear bomb for a warhead.

"There is no alternative but to say that the threat has now reached a dimension altogether different from what has transpired until now," Abe said.

"The threat to the international community has become increasingly grave and all the more realistic. It demands a new means of addressing it, altogether different from what we applied until yesterday," he said.

Abe did not spell out specific actions but said Japan would use its non-permanent seat on the Security Council to explore new options.

The right-leaning leader first rose to power with tough talk on North Korea and has made revision of Japan's US-imposed pacifist constitution his signature issue.

But Japan has never fired a shot in anger since World War II and is constitutionally barred from offensive military operations.

China and the United States are in talks on drafting a new UN Security Council resolution to punish North Korea for its latest moves, although such measures have not stopped Pyongyang in the past.

North Korea is already one of the most sanctioned countries on Earth but Kim Jong-Un's regime says that it needs nuclear weapons to ensure its survival against arch-enemies the United States and Japan.

China has been increasingly critical of North Korea but many analysts believe that a rising Beijing would prefer to put up with the troublesome regime rather than risk a united, US-allied Korea on its border.