The UN Security Council (UNSC) issued a press statement on Monday strongly condemning North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch.

Backed by all 15 UNSC members, the statement demanded North Korea halt all further nuclear and ballistic missile tests, adding it was ready to impose more sanctions on the regime.

In an emergency meeting held a day later, the council agreed on the seriousness of the North’s missile program, noting that last Sunday’s ballistic missile test featured the longest-flying missile from the regime so far.

The U.S. and its allies are said to have emphasized the need to slap more sanctions on the defiant North, noting the regime is on the verge of completing its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missile was launched at 5:27 a.m. last Sunday from Kusong, located about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang, and flew approximately 700 kilometers before landing in the East Sea.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Monday that the launch of its new “Hwasong-12” was a success, saying it was to test the capabilities of the mid- to long-range missile on which a heavyweight nuclear warhead can be mounted.

It claimed the missile reached an altitude of two-thousand-111-point-five kilometers before flying 787 kilometers to hit the targeted area in open waters.

The launch came 15 days after the North fired a missile on April 29th and four days after President Moon Jae-in took office.

Shortly after the North’s missile launch, the South Korean president convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, expressing deep regret over the North's move.

While calling the missile launch a reckless provocation and a clear violation of UNSC resolutions, Moon ordered the military to maintain combat readiness in order to counter any military provocations from the North.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry said in a report to the National Assembly on Tuesday that the North’s latest missile is a more enhanced intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) than the Musudan missiles.

Responding to speculation that the North aimed to test the warhead’s stable reentry into the atmosphere, the ministry said it requires additional verification, adding the missile still falls short of being labeled as an ICBM.