INTERNATIONAL: The Biden administration on Wednesday has slapped sanctions on five North Korean officials in its first response to Pyongyang's latest ballistic missile test and later announced it will also seek new U.N. sanctions.

The Treasury Department has said it was imposing penalties on the five officials over their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for the North's missile programs. In addition, the State Department ordered sanctions against another North Korean, a Russian man and a Russian company for their broader support of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction activities.

The U.S. Treasury has said the steps aimed both to prevent the advancement of North Korea's programs and to impede its attempts to proliferate weapons technologies.

The United States also proposed that five of those individuals also be blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council, which would need consensus agreement by the body's 15-member North Korea sanctions committee. read more

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has sought unsuccessfully to engage Pyongyang in dialogue to persuade it to give up its nuclear bombs and missiles since taking office in January last year.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price has announced that the United States remained committed to pursuing diplomacy with North Korea.

South Korea, a U.S. ally that has pushed Washington to back more engagement with North Korea, said it did not believe the move meant that President Joe Biden's administration had hardened its position.

U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson has said that the moves targeted North Korea's "continued use of overseas representatives to illegally procure goods for weapons."

North Korea's latest launches were "further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community's calls for diplomacy and denuclearization," Nelson further said in a statement.