(PTI): The UN Security Council condemns North Korea in a nonbinding statement for conducting a new nuclear weapons test.

According to a statement issued by council members after an emergency meeting that lasted less than an hour on Monday, the test was in violation of a 2006 resolution passed against the North.

“The members of the Security Council voiced their strong opposition to and condemnation of the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 25 May 2009, which constitutes a clear violation of resolution 1718,” reads the statement.

The council had passed resolution 1718 in October 2006 shortly after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in the Korean peninsula.

The council members also agreed to begin work immediately on a new restricting resolution against North Korea.

The developments come after the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Pyongyang had “successfully conducted” the powerful underground nuclear test on May 25 in order to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense.

The North had hinted at its intentions to resume its nuclear activities after the UN Security Council moved against the country for launching a rocket carrying a satellite in early April.

Pyongyang has warned in the past weeks that it intended to strengthen its nuclear “deterrent” against the United States and its allies in the Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang has accused the US President Barack Obama of pursuing the same policies of Bush administration and has vowed to keep its nuclear weapons.