(LEAD) N. Korea again vows retaliation against U.N. resolution

(ATTN: UPDATES with Seoul's response in last two paras)

SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday again protested last week's United Nations resolution on its human rights conditions, threatening merciless retaliation against the U.S. and its allies that Pyongyang says were behind the vote at the international body.

The latest statement came from the North's powerful National Defense Commission (NDC), adding to the daily condemnation of the resolution endorsed by a U.N. committee. The resolution called on the Security Council to refer the country to the International Criminal Court over its dire human rights situation.

The U.N.-backed Commission of Inquiry in February issued the first formal report documenting what it called the North's "widespread, systemic and grave" human rights violations, laying the groundwork for the resolution.

"Our army and people categorically deny and reject the resolution on human rights fabricated by the U.S and its allies by abusing (the) U.N.," the English-language statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

"We have never recognized any resolution worked out by the U.S.-led undesirable hostile forces to encroach upon our sovereignty and vital rights," the statement said, repeating the country's previous claims that such human rights campaigns are a U.S.-initiated plot to topple the North Korean regime.

The recent resolution is "a full revelation of the hostile intention to stamp out everything dear to our army and people," the North said.

"The U.S. and its followers are now unable to escape merciless punishment for daring impair the prestige of the DPRK and foolishly trying to bring down the socialist system, the cradle of our people," the statement said, adding that its military servicemen's determination to retaliate is running high. DPRK stands for the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The statement further claimed the U.S. responded to the North's generosity in the recent freeing of two American detainees with a "frantic human rights racket against the DPRK."

"The U.S. and its followers will be wholly accountable for the unimaginable and catastrophic consequences to be entailed by the frantic human rights racket," it also warned.

The North also warned South Korea, saying "Does she (President Park Geun-hye) think Chongwadae (the presidential office) will be safe if guns roar for aggression and a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula?"

South Korea condemned Pyongyang's threat to use nuclear weapons, warning that such a provocative move would further isolate the communist regime from the international community.

"If North Korea goes ahead with provocations, we warn that it will face a stern backlash from the international community," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement. "We urge the North to stop any threatening and provocations using weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear bombs and missiles, as well as conventional weapons, and take concrete and practical measures to improve the human rights of North Koreans."

pbr@yna.co.kr
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