"The emergency UNSC meeting will be held Wednesday (New York time) at the request of South Korea, the United States and Japan," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

"The South Korean government will discuss with council members, including the US, UNSC measures that correspond to North Korea's provocation that are clearly in violation of (previous) UNSC resolutions," the ministry also said.

A day earlier, North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the East Sea. Later in the day, the country's state-run newswire Korean Central News Agency announced that the Hwasong-14 ICBM reached an altitude of 2,802 kilometers and flew 933 km for 39 minutes before hitting an intended target in the East Sea.

The forthcoming UNSC meeting is likely to discuss the adoption of further sanctions on North Korea in condemnation of the latest ICBM launch, which marks a great leap in North Korea's ballistic missile technology.

During his phone conversation with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the US will escalate anti-North sanctions by the UNSC and the US, and will double efforts to get China to play a more active role in reining in North Korea. (Yonhap)