In his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly underway in New York, Yun also urged the UN Security Council to adopt "stronger" and "comprehensive" sanctions to punish the North for its fifth and most powerful nuclear detonation test conducted earlier this month.

"It is crystal clear that North Korea, as a serial offender, has manifestly failed to uphold its pledge to abide by the obligations in the UN Charter, particularly to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council," Yun said.

"Therefore, I believe that it is high time to seriously consider whether North Korea is qualified to be a peace-loving UN member, as many countries are already questioning," he added.

Yun raised the qualification issue for the North in an apparent bid to put more pressure on Pyongyang in addition to diverse punitive measures being discussed following the North's fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9. This marked the first time that South Korea officially has taken issue with the North's membership since both joined the UN in 1991 simultaneously.

The UNSC is currently working on drafting a fresh resolution to make it much harder for Pyongyang to get its hands on money and materials that can be used to help its nuclear and missile development programs.

South Korea has been intensifying its diplomatic drive to drum up support for stronger punitive measures than previous ones including Resolution 2270, adopted after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January.

"The Council should adopt stronger, comprehensive sanction measures that go beyond Resolution 2270. It should close the loopholes in that resolution and further expand and reinforce existing sanction measures," Yun said.

"In this context, we need to answer a more fundamental question. North Korea's repeated violations and non-compliance of Security Council resolutions and international norms is unprecedented... It shows that North Korea is totally ridiculing the authority of the General Assembly and the Security Council," he added.

Yun expressed concern that the North's fifth nuclear test demonstrates that its nuclear programs have neared the "tipping point," citing its power and the test interval that has been reduced significantly over the past years.

He also worried that the North's next nuclear provocations "may come even sooner than we expect," raising the sense of urgency and suggesting that time is running out.

"My president warned that unless we put a brake on Pyongyang's nuclear ambition today, we will come to regret it tomorrow. This is our last chance," he said.

Yun also drew attention to the dire human rights situation in the North. Among other things, he criticized the North Korean regime for being bent on developing weapons of mass destruction at a time when its people are suffering after the worst flooding in decades.

"North Korea's fifth nuclear test not only revealed its unambiguous nuclear ambition but it also exposed its utter disregard for its own people. At a time of the worst flooding in decades, North Korea went ahead with the nuclear test in the hardest hit region," he said.

"It is estimated that North Korea has spent at least $200 million on this year's nuclear tests and missile firings, a sufficient sum that could have been used for flood relief," he noted.

Yun called for "action" to prevent human rights abuses in the North and hold those behind all of this accountable.

The minister underlined the need to tackle human rights abuses of North Korean people working abroad, in particular, as well as a possible diversion of the money that they are earning to the development of weapons of mass destruction.

"We need to sharpen our focus on North Korea's so-called state-sponsored forced labor abroad. There should be greater scrutiny of the human rights of North Korean workers abroad and the possible diversion of their wages into North Korea's WMD programs," he said. "The international community should pay attention to the yearnings of North Koreans for freedom and human dignity. They deserve greater access to the realities of the outside world." (Yonhap)