People watch a TV at Seoul Railway Station showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch shown during a news program, Jan. 20. AP-Yonhap

The United States and seven other members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) called on all U.N. members Thursday to fully implement UNSC sanctions on North Korea.

The call came after China blocked a U.S. proposal to impose additional U.N. sanctions against the North for conducting four missile launches since the start of the year.

"We also call on all member states to implement Security Council resolutions, to which the Security Council unanimously agreed, and which calls on the DPRK to abandon its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner," said the joint statement, delivered by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on behalf of her counterparts from Albania, Brazil, Britain, France, Ireland, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.