North Korea threatens to bolster nuclear capability

SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea vowed Saturday to boost its nuclear capability and take all necessary steps to defend itself to counter a United Nations resolution calling for the referral of its leaders to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

The resolution, adopted by the General Assembly Thursday, recommends that the Security Council take up the issue and bring the North's leadership to international justice.

The resolution had earlier passed through the General Assembly's Third Committee with overwhelming support.

The resolution, drafted by the European Union and Japan, draws heavily on a U.N. inquiry on the North's human rights abuses which concluded in February. The report said the North was committing rights abuses "without parallel in the contemporary world."

"We will step up our efforts to strengthen self-defensive capability, including nuclear capability," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, arguing that the resolution was a U.S-led political scheme to find an excuse for a military invasion against it.

Unlike past U.N. resolutions against North Korea, this one, for the first time, includes a recommendation for the U.N. Security Council to consider referring the issue to the ICC for possible punishment.

The Security Council is expected to take up the issue as early as next week, but is unlikely to approve a referral as China and Russia -- two veto-wielding powers of the council's five permanent members -- are sure to veto it.

The North's human rights problem has drawn greater international attention this year after the U.N. Commission of Inquiry issued a report in February saying North Korean leaders are responsible for "widespread, systematic and gross" violations of human rights.

Pyongyang has long been labeled as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps and keeps tight control over outside information.

But the North has bristled at such criticism, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.
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