North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un warns his regime is preparing to test nuclear warhead

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                                                           North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un has warned his regime is preparing to test a nuclear warhead.

The secretive country's leader said his military would soon test ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, in what would be a direct violation of UN resolutions that have the backing of Pyongyang's chief ally, China.

Kim made the comments as he supervised a reportedly successful simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile that measured the "thermodynamic structural stability of newly developed heat-resisting materials".

"Declaring that a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads will be conducted in a short time to further enhance the reliance of nuclear attack capability, he (Kim) 

instructed the relevant section to make prearrangement for them to the last detail," the agency said.

South Korea's defence ministry said there were no indications of activities at the North's nuclear test site or its long-range rocket station, but that North Korea continued to maintain readiness to conduct nuclear tests.

The North Korean report comes amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula after the announcement of new U.N. sanctions on North Korea and as South Korean and U.S. troops stage their largest ever annual joint military exercises.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said North Korea would lead itself to self-destruction if it continued its confrontation with the international community

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook condemned the North Korean rhetoric, while questioning Pyongyang's technological claims.

"We have not seen North Korea demonstrate capability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon, and again, put it on a ballistic missile," he told a news briefing.

China, which has been North Korea's main ally but backed the tougher U.N. sanctions, urged caution and called for all sides to avoid actions that would exacerbate tensions.

But in a sign of Beijing's frustration with Pyongyang, China's state news agency Xinhua said that the South Korean and Chinese foreign ministers had discussed the sanctions by telephone late on Monday and agreed on the importance of implementing them "in a complete and comprehensive manner".

South Korea's defence ministry said that despite the KCNA report, it did not believe North Korea had acquired the re-entry technology needed to prevent ballistic missiles burning up when they reenter the earth's atmosphere.

In the apparent re-entry simulation, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party showed pictures of a dome-shaped object placed under what appeared to be a rocket engine being blasted with flaming exhaust. In separate images, 

Kim observed the object described by KCNA as a warhead tip.

North Korea has issued belligerent statements almost daily since coming under a new U.N. sanctions resolution this month after it carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket last month.

Nuclear proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said it would be a "terrible" worry if North Korea was seeking to emulate U.S. and Chinese tests in 1962 and 1966 respectively that launched ballistic missiles with live warheads.