The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the latest missile launch by North Korea on Friday, China's Xinhua news agency reported sources as saying on Thursday.

The Ethiopian delegation, which is the presidency of the Security Council for September, confirmed in a notice that the US and Japanese delegations to the United Nations "request the Presidency to call urgent consultations."

North Korea reportedly fired a missile that flew over Japan's northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

The Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear test on Sept 3, which violated the previous Security Council resolutions.

The sanctions resolution, the third Security Council action concerning Pyongyang in five weeks, curtailed North Korea's oil supply by almost 30 percent, and banned all of its textile exports worth US$800 million and remittances of North Korean labourers from abroad.

It was the ninth UN sanctions resolution adopted on the country since 2006.

- Bernama