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Responding to the resolution about North Korean human rights abuses that was passed by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, North Korea’s National Defense Commission, the most powerful political body in the country, said on Nov. 23 that the North would “embark upon an unprecedented ultra-hardline counterattack.”

“The human rights resolution that a hijacked UN was compelled to pass fully expresses the hostile intentions to completely annihilate the North Korean army and everything that the people hold dear,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the National Defense Commission (NDC) as saying in a statement on Sunday.

The NDC statement did not specifically explain what it meant by an “ultra-hardline counterattack.”

However, the statement did mention North Korea’s withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1993, hinting at the possibility of a fourth nuclear test. “The UN has cause to recall the thunder that rolled 20 years ago when we made our justified nuclear declaration in order to protect the greatest interests of the country,” the statement said.

The NDC pointed to the US, Japan, and South Korea as the targets for its “ultra-hardline counterattack.”

The statement criticized President Park Geun-hye, crudely referring to her as “the Park Geun-hye gang.” “If a nuclear war breaks out in Korea, do the people lurking in the Blue House really think that they will be safe?” the NDC threatened.

In regard to the US, the NDC mentioned the release of Kenneth Bae and other Americans that had been detained in North Korea. “We showed humanitarian tolerance to several American criminals, but the US responded by madly joining the commotion about human rights in North Korea. As a result, it has become clear that the US is the first target that will be baptized in our merciless retribution,” the statement said.

The NDC expressed its appreciation for Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and other countries who opposed the human rights resolution. “We are sincerely grateful and we will never forget it,” the statement said.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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