(VOVworld) – UN Security Council diplomats held a meeting on Friday to negotiate a draft statement that would enforce sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang’s latest test-firing of ballistic missiles.

This picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Apr 24, 2016 shows the underwater test-fire of a strategic submarine ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on Apr 23, 2016 (Photo: AFP)

The draft statement requests that all UN member-states report no later than May 31 on the “concrete measures” they have taken to implement the sanctions resolution. It directs a UN sanctions committee to intensify its work to strengthen enforcement of resolution 2270, which was adopted in March after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. The statement urges North Korea to refrain from further actions that violate UN resolutions. Both the United States and China agreed on the statement but its adoption was delayed after Russia requested more time to consider the text.