UN Security Council to meet over North Korea's latest missile test

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet 3 p.m. EDT on latest missile test by North Korea.

According to reports, the United Nations Security Council will meet at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Friday on the latest North Korea missile test at the request of the United States and Japan.

North Korea has fired an unidentified missile from its capital Pyongyang that landed in the sea after passing over Japan. It has further ratcheted up tensions after Pyongyang's recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb.

The South Korean military said that the latest missile launch took place in Pyongyang just before 07:00 local time on Friday (22:00 GMT on Thursday).

It was the 15th missile test by North Korea this year and the first since North Korea detonated its most powerful nuclear bomb to date on Sept. 3.

The missile blasted off from near the Sunan International Airport north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and flew about 2,300 miles, flying over northern Japan, The New York Times quoted South Korean military as saying.

South Korea's presidential Blue House called an urgent meeting of its national security council.

Japan's government strongly protested against North Korea's missile test and called it Pyongyang's latest intolerable provocation.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo will never tolerate North Korea's "provocative" acts.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he thinks the missile that North Korea fired on Friday was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), given its firing range, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported.

It is notable that the UNSC on Monday unanimously adopted new sanctions on North Korea for conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test on September 3.

The sanctions are designed to accomplish six major goals: cap North Korea's oil imports, ban textile exports, end additional overseas labourer contracts, suppress smuggling efforts, stop joint ventures with other nations and sanction designated North Korean government entities.

It was the ninth U.N. sanctions resolution adopted on North Korea since 2006.