The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday it will never recognize a United Nations resolution criticizing the DPRK for failing to cooperate with the UN in its efforts to assess the country's human rights record.

Adopted last Thursday at the 61st meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights held in Geneva, the resolution censured the DPRK for not cooperating with the work of the UN commission on human rights and urged the DPRK to change its attitude towards UN human rights monitors attempting to assess the situation in the country.

The DPRK's foreign ministry here said the resolution is a component of a campaign of hostile forces to isolate and stifle the DPRK.

"The resolution is chiefly aimed to overthrow the system in the DPRK," the ministry said in a statement.

"It is well known that the United States has regarded the human rights issue as well as the nuclear issue as the main leverage to escalate tension in the Korean Peninsula and isolate and stifle the DPRK," the statement said.

The statement condemned the resolution as "one more sinister hostile act" perpetrated by countries including Britain and Japan which have joined with the US in moves to stifle the DPRK.

"It clearly indicated the high-handed practice of the West keen on applying selectivity and double standards in dealing with the human rights issues," the statement said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2005)