"North Korea on Monday threatened a planned U.N. field office in South Korea set up to investigate human rights abuses in the isolated country, saying anyone involved would be 'ruthlessly punished'.
"The United Nations in March called for the field office to monitor human rights in North Korea following the release of a 372-page U.N. Commission of Inquiry report that detailed wide-ranging abuses, including systematic torture, starvation and killings comparable to Nazi-era atrocities.
"'Anyone who challenges our dignity and social system and agrees to go ahead with the establishment of the office will be ruthlessly punished,' the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement."