A United Nations committee on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights violations and calling for accountability. 

The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which oversees humanitarian issues, passed the resolution by consensus without a vote. 

If the resolution is officially approved in the General Assembly plenary session next month, the UN will have adopted the North Korea resolution for the 16th straight year.

As in previous years, the resolution condemns longstanding and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in North Korea, while encouraging the UN Security Council to take action to ensure accountability such as by considering the referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court. 

The resolution immediately prompted protest from the North.

Kim Song, the chief of the North Korean mission to the UN, said the North resolutely rejects the resolution, calling it a political plot that has nothing to do with human rights. He claimed that the resolution is based on false information fabricated by human trash North Korean defectors.