The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a statement expressing "grave concerns" over North Korea's continued missile launches without forewarnings, the foreign ministry said Saturday. 

The statement was issued by the 97th session of IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) held in London for five days through Friday.

South Korea attended the session as one of IMO's 171 member states.

North Korea is also a member.

"The Maritime Safety Committee ... received a report on numerous missile launches without any proper navigational warnings by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The MSC expressed its "grave concern over those operations, which pose a serious threat to maritime safety," the ministry said in a statement.  

The MSC adopted a similar statement in 1998 and 2006 when North Korea launched missiles without prior notification to the IMO.

The MSC named North Korea in its statement for the first time, sending a clear message to the communist country against firing missiles without a navigational warning.

North Korea has escalated its saber-rattling in the past decade to achieve its stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped long-range missile that could hit parts of the U.S. mainland.

This year alone, the communist regime conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests in January and September, following three detonations in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and launched some 20 missiles. 

The statement is not legally binding but offers its interpretation, judgment and recommendation of maritime affairs as guidelines to IMO member countries.

IMO, headquartered in London, is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping. (Yonhap)