"The UNSC statement is something that renewed all the UN member countries' alarm against North Korea's repeated provocations and expressed the international community's willingness to faithfully implement sanctions on North Korea," the spokesman noted.

He stressed that South Korea has worked closely with like-minded countries for the adoption of the statement. On Monday in New York, the UN panel issued a press statement, unanimously condemning the North's latest ballistic missile test and warned of "further significant measures."

It came one day after North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile from the country's western North Pyongan Province, the first missile test this year. (Yonhap)