North Korea vowed yesterday that tough new United Nations sanctions would not stop it from developing its nuclear arsenal, as it rejected talks and angrily warned the United States of retaliation.

The message of defiance was the first major response to the US-drafted sanctions, which the UN Security Council unanimously approved over the weekend and which could cost North Korea $1 billion a year.

The North's sole major ally China, accused by the United States of doing too little to rein in Pyongyang, piled on the diplomatic pressure by vowing to fully implement the new sanctions, reported AFP.

"We will under no circumstances put the nukes and ballistics rockets on (the) negotiating table," North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho said in a statement released in the Philippine capital Manila where he was attending a regional security forum.

"Neither shall we flinch even an inch from the road to bolstering up the nuclear

forces chosen by ourselves unless the hostile policy and nuclear threat of the US against the DPRK (North Korea) are fundamentally eliminated."

For his part, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ruled out a quick return to dialogue with North Korea, saying Washington would only consider talks if Pyongyang halted its ballistic missile programme.

"The best signal that North Korea could send that they're prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches," Tillerson told reporters.

Beijing's top diplomat said yesterday China is " 100 percent” committed to enforcing the latest round of sanctions against North Korea. "China will for sure implement that new resolution 100 percent, fully and strictly," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters.

Pyongyang's fiery statement via KCNA yesterday also hit out at Beijing and Moscow.

North Korea warned that nations which "received appreciation from the US" for supporting the resolution would also be " held accountable".