N. Korea Threatens to Nuke Japan Over UN's Human Rights Ruling

North Korea denounced Tuesday's U.N. resolution in the General Assembly's Third Committee criticizing its human rights record as "an open declaration of a war," according to the reclusive state's official news agency.

Describing itself as a "cradle of happiness," Pyongyang characterized international outrage over its human rights abuses as a "farce."

North Korea's National Defense Commission raised the prospect of an atomic response and warned that "if a nuclear war breaks out," Japan "will disappear from the world map for good."

Japan and the European Union co-authored the U.N. resolution.

North Korea further threatened  that "time will prove what high price those who unreasonably violated the dignity" of its country "will have to pay," Vice News reported.

The General Assembly, by a vote of 111 in favor to 19 against and 55 abstentions, requested the Security Council consider filing charges against the North Korean regime at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Such a step is improbable because of anticipated opposition from China and Russia, Vice reported.

Pyongyang has methodically killed, starved, raped and imprisoned tens of thousands of innocents in political prisons. The "grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity are ingrained in the institutional framework of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," according to the U.N. report.

While the U.N. has been monitoring North Korea's treatment of its people for some years, generating 25 reports, "The UN as a body has never come out in this way to criticize North Korea," said Charles Armstrong, a Korean expert at Columbia University, Vice News reported. "This will be hanging over them for some time to come."

North Korea routinely hurls threats at its foes. It has now threatened to carry out a nuclear test in retaliation for the latest criticism of its human rights violations, according to the  BBC.

"It's not the first time that they've threatened us over nuclear issues," said Japanese U.N. diplomat Taro Tsutsumi.

"It's actually a usual, daily matter," Vice News reported.

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