North Korea lashed out at a United Nations resolution on the country's human rights on Thursday, vowing to intensify its nuclear weapons deterrence in the face of what it claims is growing hostility toward the country.

The reaction from the North came two days after a U.N. committee passed a strongly-worded resolution, calling on the UN Security Council to refer the communist country to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its dire human rights situation.

"We completely reject the forceful passage of this resolution, led by the United State with the aim of overthrowing (our) people-centered socialist system," the North Korean foreign ministry said in a statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Such hostile actions by the U.S. are compelling North Korea not to refrain from an additional nuclear test, the statement said, pledging that "our war deterrence will be intensified limitlessly in preparations against military intervention and armed aggression."

The North again accused the U.S. of trying to topple the regime.

"The reason why the U.S. unleashed human rights attacks (on

Pyongyang) is because it is trying to make a pretext for military intervention," it said.

The North has long condemned any talk of North Korean human rights as a U.S.-led plot to bring down the regime.

"The resolution is only based on a document full of fabricated testimonies from North Korean defectors as well as slander against Pyongyang," the ministry said. "All the repercussion from the resolution adoption will be burdened by its mastermind and its puppets."

The angry reaction reflects growing pressure the country is facing over its human rights record.

Before the latest resolution, a U.N.-backed commission of inquiry (COI) documented North Korea's dismal human rights situation earlier this year in a year-long investigation into the issue, mainly focused on testimony from North Korean defectors around the world.

The resolution was written based on the COI report that concluded "systematic, widespread and grave" human rights violations were taking place in the North, calling for the referral of the issue to the ICC for the first time ever.(Yonhap)