The UN Security Council has adopted the toughest-ever sanction measures on North Korea for its nuclear test and missile launch earlier this year. Seoul has welcomed the measures, pledging to do all it can for the effective implementation of the sanctions.

UN Resolution 2270, which effectuates the sanction measures on the North, was adopted during a full session of the UNSC at the UN headquarters in New York Wednesday. All 15 member states of the top decision-making body of the UN, including veto-wielding China and Russia, voted for the resolution.

Resolution 2270, the fifth of the resolutions the UNSC adopted against the North since its first nuclear test in 2006, undisputedly contains stronger sanction measures than previous ones.

The resolution calls for inspecting cargo coming from or going to the North, while restricting the regime's exports of its minerals, an important source of cash for the impoverished nation.

While seeking to stop cash flowing into North Korea's nuclear or ballistic-missile programs, the UNSC also banned aviation and rocket fuel supplies going to North Korea.

In addition, the UNSC, for the first time, officially put the agencies belonging to the North Korean government or the country’s ruling Workers’ Party on the list of North Korean entities subject to asset freezes.

Among the agencies targeted are the so-called Office 39 of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, along with the North's General Reconnaissance Bureau, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and the National Aerospace Development Administration.

The UNSC also requires all countries to expel North Korean diplomats who engage in "illicit activities." The latest sanctions package also imposes a comprehensive arms embargo on Pyongyang, by adding small conventional weapons to the embargo list.

While these new sanctions are tougher than ever before, some critics point to the critically needed sanction measures that are missing from the list, such as the regulation on the North Koreans working overseas, another major source of profit for the North Korean regime.

Some South Korean scholars are concerned about additional provocative acts the North may take in defiance of the latest UN sanctions. Hours after the UNSC adopted the new resolution, the North fired short-range projectiles towards the East Sea.

According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his military to be prepared to launch nuclear weapons at all times.