A draft resolution calling for tougher sanctions against North Korea’s December rocket launch is being circulated among members of the U.N. Security Council, who are poised to pass it as early as Wednesday, a Seoul diplomatic source said Monday.

“To my knowledge, the draft resolution will be put to a vote early this week and adopted on Wednesday or Thursday (Seoul time), unless there is another variable,” said the source with direct knowledge of the U.N. debate.

The Security Council is set to convene a meeting to vote for the resolution, the source said on the condition of anonymity.

The draft resolution comes after China reversed its stance against taking strict actions against the North and agreed to punish Pyongyang with a U.N. resolution for its defiant rocket launch.

South Korea and the U.S. have been pushing to get the Security Council to adopt stiffer sanctions against North Korea in response to its Dec. 12 rocket launch, but China had apparently wanted the council to issue a statement, or a symbolic condemnation against the North’s launch.

A diplomatic compromise came last week after the U.S. and China reached a tentative deal on the draft resolution that will tighten existing sanctions against North Korea, rather than imposing new ones, according to the source.

Details of the new U.N. resolution are unknown, but, if adopted, it will add more North Korean individuals and entities to the list of sanctions already in place for its earlier nuclear tests, the source said.

Asked whether the new resolution would include a reference of Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, the source replied, “It remains to be seen.”

The Chapter 7 allows the Security Council to use its authority to impose a range of measures including breaking diplomatic ties, imposing economic and military action, according to Seoul diplomats.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 when it conducted its first nuclear test. The sanctions were tightened in 2009 after its second nuclear test.

Concerns persist that North Korea may conduct a third nuclear test following the latest rocket launch as it did with the previous two rocket launches. (Yonhap News)