N. Korea again vows to bolster war deterrence over U.N. resolution

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea bashed the United States for its alleged role in adopting the United Nations' resolution condemning the North's dire human rights situation, vowing to bolster war deterrence to counter "hostile powers."

Earlier this week, the U.N. passed a highly symbolic resolution calling for referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for human rights violations. Referral to the ICC was the key recommendation by U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) in its February report based upon its yearlong probe into Pyongyang's rights record.

Calling the resolution "a product of the anti-North Korea plot," the communist country said in its newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, that the U.S. launched the human rights offensive "in a bid to invent a pretext for starting an invasion."

Threatening that the U.S. and its allies "will be held wholly responsible for all the consequences to be entailed by its adoption," the North said the situation on the Korean Peninsula "is now close to a phase of extreme tensions" due to the resolution.

"The war deterrence of the DPRK will be bolstered up unlimitedly to cope with the U.S. invasion of the country," the Rodong Sinmun said. The DPRK is the acronym of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

In the face of what it sees as growing hostility toward it, the bellicose regime has threatened to intensify its nuclear weapons deterrence.

North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, prompting the U.N. to slap sanctions on Pyongyang in accordance with U.N. resolutions condemning its missile launches and nuclear tests. Undeterred, the North has threatened to carry out "a new form" of nuclear test.

graceoh@yna.co.kr
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