(LEAD) N. Korea condemns U.N. human rights resolution on Pyongyang: KCNA

▲ This undated file image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows a U.N. resolution on North Korean human rights being put to a vote. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) N Korea-UN resolution

(LEAD) N. Korea condemns U.N. human rights resolution on Pyongyang: KCNA

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info from para 4)

SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday condemned a recent United Nations resolution on human rights violations in the country, calling it a "grave political provocation."

The reaction came after the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council adopted its annual resolution on Pyongyang's human rights by consensus Monday at its 61st regular session, co-sponsored by 50 countries, including South Korea.

"(Our) foreign ministry regards the act of adopting a human rights resolution against our republic as a grave political provocation against our national dignity and sovereignty and condemns it with the strongest language," the ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

The statement argued the U.N. human rights review system targeting individual states constitutes an act of hostility that runs counter to the U.N. Charter's principle of non-intervention in internal affairs.

"The custom of adopting human rights resolutions (against North Korea) for over 20 years marks a regrettable condition of the U.N. human rights stage that is getting contaminated by politicization, selectiveness and double standards," it added.

The North Korean foreign ministry warned the "malicious acts" of countries that joined in slandering North Korea's national and social institutions would be taken into account.

It also referred to hundreds of children in need of special protection being targeted and killed by precision-guided weapons, apparently alluding to a U.S. attack that led to the deaths of nearly 200 students and teachers at a school in Iran, in what appeared to be an attempt to deflect human rights criticism against the regime.

(END)

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved