"We have not yet been able to get down to the very specifics but generally I think we've been able to have a fairly good understanding of the positions of each other, where we stand and what we would like to achieve," Council President for October Ambassador Kenzo Oshima of Japan, told reporters after a meeting of the five permanent members.

Meanwhile, a separate meeting at experts' level resumed after they started on the issue Monday. Further meetings at both levels were scheduled for later Tuesday.

"Obviously we're going to need more consultations both at expert level and at ambassadors' level. We also need to talk with other members of the Council," Oshima said, adding that one focus of discussion was whether to invoke Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which can allow for sanctions and use of force in the case of a threat to or breach of peace.

He said some members have already received initial instructions from their governments while others are still waiting.

In Monday's consultations, Council members condemned the reported test, and called on the DPRK to refrain from further testing and return to the Six-Party Talks that have been seeking to resolve the issue of its nuclear program.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei also called for urgent resumption of the Six-Party Talks earlier Monday.

Annan said the reported test "violates international norms of disarmament and nonproliferation, as well as the current international moratorium on nuclear testing.. it aggravates regional tensions in and around the Korean Peninsula, and jeopardizes security both in the region and beyond."

ElBaradei said DPRK's nuclear test "threatens the nuclear nonproliferation regime and creates serious security challenges not only for the East Asian region but also for the international community."

Addressing the General Assembly's First Committee on Disarmament and International Security on Monday, DPRK representative to the UN Pak Gil Yon said while his country's ultimate goal was the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it had been compelled to possess a nuclear deterrent for self-defense after the United States had threatened his country with nuclear weapons and designated it as a target for preemptive attack.

It was "gangster-like" logic that only big countries could possess nuclear weapons and attack and threaten small countries with them, he said.

It was also the reality today that, whether missile launch or nuclear test, if the U.S. approved it, it was tolerated and would not be brought to the UN, the DPRK envoy added.