United Nations ? Eight days after North Korea’s rocket launch, the U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned the action, demanded an end to missile tests and said it would expand sanctions against the reclusive communist nation.

North Korea said in response that it will boycott the stalled six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons program and restore the nuclear facilities it had been disabling.

The council’s statement, agreed on by all 15 members and read at a formal meeting of the United Nations’ most powerful body, said the launch violated a council resolution adopted after the North conducted a nuclear test explosion in 2006 that banned any missile tests by the country.

The statement was a weaker response than a U.N. resolution, which was sought by Japan and the United States but was opposed by China and Russia. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice insisted the statement is legally binding, just like a resolution — a view backed by Russia — but other diplomats and officials disagreed.