The U.N. Security Council agreed Wednesday to immediately start work on a new sanctions resolution against North Korea, saying it "strongly condemns" Pyongyang's latest nuclear test.

The 15-member council issued a press statement after an emergency meeting convened to discuss the North's announcement that it successfully carried out its first H-bomb test.

"The members of the Security Council ... recalled that they have previously expressed their determination to take further significant measures in the event of another DPRK nuclear test,"

the council's president, Uruguay's U.N. Ambassador Elbio Rosselli, said.

"In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on such measures in a new Security Council resolution," he said. He also called the test "a clear violation of Security Council resolutions."

The council is expected to adopt a new resolution later this month.

So far, the council has adopted six resolutions, six presidential statements and two press statements with regard to the North's nuclear and missile program. Of the six resolutions, four included sanctions on the isolated nation.

The proposed new sanctions resolution is expected to be much tougher than the previous ones.

Earlier in the day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the North's test as "deeply troubling," a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and "profoundly destabilizing for regional security."

"I condemn it unequivocally," Ban said in a statement. "I demand the DPRK cease any further nuclear activities and meet its obligations for verifiable denuclearization."

North Korea announced earlier Wednesday that it has successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test, claiming that the test means "a higher stage of the DPRK's development of nuclear force" and that the country "proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states possessed of even an H-bomb."

The latest test marked the North's fourth nuclear test following three previous ones in 2006, 2009 and 2013. (Yonhap)