South Korea plans to refer North Korea to a U.N. sanctions committee for its recent test-launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, a diplomatic source here said Tuesday.
  

The government will soon send a letter to the North Korea Sanctions Committee established under the U.N. Security Council after the communist nation's nuclear test in 2006, according to the source. The committee submits a report to the council every three months.
  

It would represent the beginning of a formal process to take punitive steps against Pyongyang for its self-proclaimed successful launch of an SLBM. South Korea is not a member of the U.N. Security Council but it is in close consultations with the U.S. and other partner nations on the matter.
  

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, during his trip to Seoul earlier this week, said discussions are under way to put more pressure on the North "either through sanctions or other means."
  

Despite a controversy over whether the North actually succeeded in the SLBM test, South Korean officials believe the secretive nation is in the initial stage of developing the advanced weapon.
  

If the North fired the SLBM, they stressed, it is a clear violation of U.N. resolutions which ban the nation from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology.
  

Another source was cautious about whether the 15-member Security Council will directly deal with the issue or produce any new document denouncing the North. (Yonhap)