President Barack Obama  and the United Nations Security Council strengthen sanctions on North Korea for continuing to develop its nuclear weapons program and call on Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear program "in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner" and refrain from ballistic missile tests.

The measures were announced shortly after President Obama signed an executive order authorizing tighter sanctions. They "reflect the United States' commitment to holding North Korea accountable for its destabilizing actions," said Adam J. Szubin, acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department.

Josh Earnest, White House spokesman said: "The U.S. and the global community will not tolerate North Korea's illicit nuclear and ballistic missile activities, and we will continue to impose costs on North Korea until it comes into compliance with its international obligation."

The legislation also authorizes $50m over the next five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea, purchase communications equipment and support humanitarian assistance programs.

"This is an authoritarian regime. It's provocative. It has repeatedly violated UN resolutions, tested and produced nuclear weapons, and now they are trying to perfect their missile launch system," Obama said in an interview broadcast on CBS the  morning after North Korea launched the long-range rocket.

North Korea is prohibited from such launches under previous UN Security Council Resolutions because the technology in a satellite launch vehicle has potential dual-use applications to ballistic missile development.

UN has since had adopted five major resolutions since 2006 that impose where The first two resolutions were passed shortly after North Korean nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The third came a month after North Korea successfully launched a satellite in December 2012. The new U.S. sanctions name two government officials and 15 government-affiliated organizations, including the "propaganda and agitation department" of the Korean Workers' Party, several banks used to evade U.N. sanctions and shipping agencies used to transport illicit materials.

In a separate development, the North's human rights record once again came into question as a UN expert on Monday called for leader Kim to be prosecuted for human rights abuses, including starvation and "slave-like conditions" in the country.