Japan said Tuesday it has decided to impose additional sanctions on North Korea by freezing the assets of five more organizations over their involvement in the country's nuclear and missile development programs.

The new measures were approved at a Cabinet meeting following North Korea's repeated test-firings of ballistic missiles since late September including the Oct. 4 launch of a ballistic missile that flew over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years.

The five organizations include North Korea's Ministry of Rocket Industry and four trading firms, the Foreign Ministry said.

"North Korea is continuing a series of provocative acts with high frequency, such as firing ballistic missiles 23 times this year," Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference, calling North Korea's actions "violent" and "totally unacceptable."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a separate news conference that Pyongyang's provocations are "serious and imminent threats" to Japan's security and such "reckless actions" threatening international peace and stability are "absolutely intolerable."

"Japan urges North Korea to take concrete actions toward resolving various issues" including its nuclear and missile development programs as well as its past abductions of Japanese nationals, the top government spokesman said.

The abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s are one of the major challenges facing the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Matsuno added.

The action by Japan's government came after South Korea imposed on Friday unilateral sanctions on the North for the first time in five years following its missile launch earlier in the day, blacklisting 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations involved in its nuclear and missile development programs.

South Korea welcomed Japan's latest decision.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo Suk told reporters in Seoul that the Japanese sanctions "demonstrate the strong and united commitment of South Korea, the United States and Japan" in responding to North Korea's nuclear and missile development.

Speculation has been growing that North Korea could engage in additional provocative actions, including what would be its seventh nuclear test and first since September 2017.

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