North Korea threatens 'nuclear war' to defend its human rights record

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North Korea threatens 'nuclear war' to defend its human rights record

AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin

A week after the U.N. passed a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights record, the country has threatened the U.S. and Japan with nuclear war.

North Korea's National Defense Commission (NDC) issued a statement Sunday warning that Japan "will disappear from the world map for good." The NDC also said that "time will prove what high price those who unreasonably violated the dignity of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, despite its repeated warnings, will have to pay."

The NDC threatened a "nuclear war" on the Korean peninsula and repeated the claim that the country may hold a nuclear test in retaliation for the U.N. report. The U.N. report called for North Korea's human rights abuses to be referred to the International Criminal Court. North Korea previously called the U.N. report a "fraud," saying it was an effort by the U.S. to embarrass North Korea.

 - - Meghan DeMaria