North Korean officials have issued a new war threat after Sen John McCain said a 'crazy fat kid' was running hermit state.

McCain has been accused of 'hurting the dignity' of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, calling it the 'manifestation of their worst hostility toward the DPRK'.

The senator from Arizona made his comments while discussing a plan to limit North Korea's foreign relations.

'China is the only one that can control Kim Jong-un, this crazy fat kid that's running North Korea,' McCain told MSNBC's Greta van Susterern last week. 'They could stop North Korea's economy in a week.'

Sen John McCain has been accused of 'hurting the dignity' of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, calling it the 'manifestation of their worst hostility toward the DPRK' after saying a 'crazy fat kid' was running hermit state

He added: 'They haven't, because the Chinese have to understand there's a penalty... imposed by us if they don't reign in an individual that can literally start a world war, and more importantly, perhaps in the short term, strike the United States of America.'

Sen Ted Cruz also made comments about North Korea earlier this month, saying the country should be listed as a terror sponsor.

In a statement released by the government-controlled news agency KNCA, North Korean foreign ministry officials slammed McCain's comments about Kim's expanding waistline.

The statement said: 'What they uttered to dare hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK is just a manifestation of their worst hostility toward the DPRK's ideology and social system and its people and a grave provocation little short of declaration of war against it.

'The service personnel and people of the DPRK are regarding the dignity of their supreme leadership as their life and soul.'

The ministry warned that the United States should know how they react to offensive acts.

North Korean foreign ministry officials slammed McCain's comments about Kim's expanding waistline, warning that the United States should know how they react to offensive acts. Pictured above, Kim Jong-Un (center) inspects the ground jet test of a newly developed high-thrust engine at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in North Korea

'As such guys as John McCain and Ted Cruz made a provocation tantamount to declaration of war against the DPRK, the DPRK will take steps to counter it,' the statement said.

'They will have to bitterly experience the disastrous consequences to be entailed by their reckless tongue-lashing and then any regret for it will come too late,' it read.

The ministry described accusations about North Korea by US politicians as 'a burlesque making even a cat laugh for the dishonest elements of the U.S., the mastermind of all forms of terrorism worldwide, to label other country 'terror-sponsor'.'

In his comments earlier this week, McCain also called Kim 'not rational', saying there would be a 'huge penalty to pay' if a war started.

North Korea has been regularly testing missiles, with satellite images taken this week suggesting that the country could be in the final stages of preparations for a new nuclear test, US-based analysts said on Tuesday.

The images, taken March 25, show up to four vehicles or equipment trailers continuously present at the entrance to the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, with communications cables likely laid on the ground.

North Korea has been regularly testing missiles, with satellite images taken this week suggesting that the country could be in the final stages of preparations for a new nuclear test, US-based analysts said on Tuesday. Pictured above, a missile test from March 7

'This equipment would likely be used to initiate the test, collect data from the explosion and process the data,' said 38 North, a project of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

The researchers noted that water was being pumped out of the portal and drained downhill to keep the tunnel dry for monitoring or communications equipment.

'The combination of these factors strongly suggests that test preparations are well under way, including the installation of instrumentation,' the researchers said.

Last week, the US military had reached similar conclusions after observing activity at the hermit state's nuclear sites.

North Korea is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and staged two nuclear tests and multiple missile launches last year.

Despite a string of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006, Pyongyang has insisted it will continue its program.

The US has deployed its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile system in South Korea in response to North Korea's increasingly provocative ballistic missile tests.

North Korea (members of its military pictured above) is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and staged two nuclear tests and multiple missile launches last year

It is designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles.

The reclusive state has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches in defiance of UN resolutions.

North Korean foreign ministry officials said this could be seen as the US moving toward confrontation and war against their country.

In a statement released on Tuesday, it said: 'The U.S. does not want peace on the Korean peninsula, but seek only standoff and war with the DPRK. The situation calls on the DPRK to put a spur to bolstering the capabilities for self-defence to cope with possible US military aggression.

'Unless the US stops saber-rattling against the DPRK and abandons the hostile policy, the latter will take eventful measures one after another to bolster up its nuclear force in quality and quantity.

'The US has to clearly understand the stand of the DPRK, stop reckless act of driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a war and withdraw the anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK.

'If the US dares provoke the DPRK, insisting on the hostile policy, the latter will destroy the U.S. forces in south Korea and the US mainland with resolute preemptive attack and thus remove the root cause of aggression and war.'