The United States is stressing that a U.N. Security Council presidential statement denouncing North Korea’s rocket launch is binding.

State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Monday that as far as the U.S. is concerned, the U.N. statement is legally binding. He stressed that the unanimously agreed upon statement sends a strong message to the North as to the international community’s reaction to the launch.

Wood added that the critical element of the statement is that all available tools be used to try to convince the North to come back to the negotiating table and continue the process of denuclearization.