North Korea on Saturday renewed its threat to carry out a third nuclear test, saying it is the demand of its people.

"A nuclear test is the demand of the people and no other choice can be made," the North's main newspaper, Rodong Shinmun, said in a commentary.

The newspaper is the mouthpiece of the North's ruling Workers' Party and its "political commentaries" are seen as a means to make the powerful party's policies known.

"It is the people's demand that there should be something even greater than a nuclear test," it added.

The renewed threat comes only days after the communist country vowed to abandon all denuclearization efforts on the Korean Peninsula and conduct a nuclear test in response to the expanded U.N. sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Tuesday calling for stronger sanctions against North Korea for its Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket that violated existing U.N. resolutions.

"The U.N. Security Council gave us no other choice," the commentary said. "We have no choice but to go to the very end."

The paper also criticized Washington's policy of using both dialogue and pressure in its relations with the North, saying the two approaches cannot be used in parallel.

(Yonhap News)