Korea has asked China to verify claims that a missile launcher displayed by North Korea last weekend is of Chinese origin, in a potential violation of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang, a senior Seoul official said Friday.

North Korea unveiled a new long-range ballistic missile on Sunday during a mass military parade, carried aboard the 16-wheel transporter-erector-launcher (TEL). Some analysts believe the new vehicle is based on a design from a Chinese truck factory that produces such launchers.

If confirmed, China's technology assistance could violate U.N. Security Council resolutions passed in 2006 and 2009, which ban states, including China, from supplying any arms-related materials to North Korea. China has denied any wrongdoing.

"We are asking the Chinese side to verify the claims with regard to the North Korean truck launcher through a diplomatic channel," the foreign ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

South Korean officials have been studying the images of the North's new truck launcher, but the claims "have not been verified yet," the official said.

Leading defense journal IHS Jane's Defense Weekly reported this week the U.N. Security Council "will pursue inqury" into the suspected involvement by China in North Korea's missile program, citing an official close to a Council committee established to monitor North Korean sanction breaches.

The defense journal said the North's truck launcher is apparently based on a design from the 9th Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, or the Chinese truck factory.