US to act tough on N. Korea: Obama

China, North Korea's trade and financial lifeline, signed up to a U.N. Security Council declaration accusing the communist state of standing in “grave violation” of U.N. resolutions amid global condemnation of Tuesday's blast.

The Council highlighted its threat made last month — after North Korea breached U.N. resolutions by firing a long-range rocket — to take “significant action” if Pyongyang went ahead with the nuclear test.

But North Korea, which analysts say has closed ranks under the young leadership of Kim Jong Un, remained defiant after saying the underground test was forced upon it by U.S. “hostility.”

“The DPRK (North Korea) will never be bound to any resolutions,” said Jon Yong Ryong, the first secretary of North Korea's mission in Geneva, berating the U.N. resolutions as “entirely unreasonable.”

Any tougher U.N. action after years of sanctions against the recalcitrant North will depend on how far China is willing to push its ally. In his State of the Union address to Congress, Obama stepped up the rhetoric.

“America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world's most dangerous weapons,” the U.S. president said.

“The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations.”

North Korea alarmed friends and foes alike less than a day before Obama's speech when it carried out its latest nuclear test, which U.S. and South Korean monitors said was much more powerful than the previous tests in 2006 and 2009.

Obama said: “Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats.”

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