North Korea Missile Launch 'Strongly Condemned' by U.N. Security Council

North Korea's long-range missile launch has been "strongly" and unanimously condemned by members of the United Nations Security Council today.

During an emergency meeting over the launch today, council members "restated their intent to develop significant" new sanctions against North Korea for violating UN resolutions, the UNSC said today in a statement.

An agreement on a new sanctions resolution may come as early as next week, the council's president, Rafael Ramirez told reporters before stepping into the emergency meeting, according to The Associated Press.

The missile was launched from western North Korea on Saturday at 7:29 p.m. ET, or Sunday at 9:29 a.m. local time, in a trajectory that took it over the Yellow Sea, according to a U.S. official.

"U.S. Strategic Command systems detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch into space," U.S. Strategic Command said in a statement. The missile did not pose a threat to the U.S. or its allies, officials said.

The missile passed over Japan and landed near the Philippines, according to Japan's U.N. ambassador, Mothide Yoshikawa, who said the launch was "a clear threat to the lives of many people" before heading into today's closed council meeting.

China and the U.S. have been working on a new sanctions resolution against Kim Jun Un's regime since it conducted a nuclear test on Jan. 6. Though North Korea claimed the nuclear test was a hydrogen bomb, U.S. officials said an analysis showed that was not the case.

"This is the second time in just over a month" that North Korea "has chosen to conduct a major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. "We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan."

The launch Saturday, which used "ballistic missile technology," was further criticized as "another destabilizing and provocative action" by North Korea and as "a flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," in a statement issued by Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser for the U.S.

"We condemn today's launch and North Korea's determination to prioritize its missile and nuclear weapons programs over the well-being of its people, whose struggles only intensify with North Korea's diversion of scarce resources to such destabilizing activities," Rice said.

Russia also denounced the missile launch.

"We are compelled to state clearly that Pyongyang has not listened to the calls of the international community, having once again demonstrated glaring disregard for the norms of international law," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The AP reported Seoul and Washington have agreed to commence talks about the possible deployment of the THADD missile defense system in South Korea, according to South Korean Defense Ministry official Yoo Jeh Seung.

ABC News' Luis Martinez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.