North Korea has warned that the United States will pay dearly for bringing up the topic of its human rights record.

North Korea accused the US of kicking up a defamation campaign against Pyongyang by attributing the death of Otto Warmbier to North Korea.

Warmbier, a US college student, was detained in North Korea and died shortly after being sent home in a coma last year.

Warmbier's father accompanied US Vice President Mike Pence on his visit to South Korea to attend the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The unidentified official of the Institute for American Studies of North Korea's Foreign Ministry claimed Thursday that the US move is meant to tarnish Pyongyang's image, stir up international pressure and vindicate the US attempt to stifle North Korea.

US President Donald Trump pledged to honor Warmbier's memory with American resolve in his first State of the Union address last month.

Trump has also highlighted North Korea's human rights abuses by giving a nod to a North Korean defector named Ji Seong-ho, who lost his limbs in North Korea before defecting to South Korea, during the address.

The spokesperson also denounced Trump for dragging North Korean defectors into the US plot against North Korea by calling them "human scum."

"US should demonstrate prudence and self-restraint, bearing in mind that it shall pay a high price for all consequences to follow in case it continues to stick to anti-DPRK plot, groundlessly pointing a finger at the alleged DPRK's 'human rights' issue," the spokesman said in an English-language statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea's human rights record has drawn greater international attention since the UN Commission of Inquiry issued a report in 2014 after a year-long probe, saying that North Korean leaders are responsible for "widespread, systematic and gross" violations of human rights.

North Korea has long been accused of grave human rights abuses, ranging from holding political prisoners in concentration camps to committing torture and carrying out public executions.

Still, North Korea has bristled at outside criticism, calling it a US-led attempt to topple its regime.

On Thursday, Choe Ryong-hae, a confidant of the North Korean leader and a key official of the ruling Workers' Party, said in a speech on Thursday that North Korea will bolster its self-defensive nuclear deterrent. Choe made the speech on the eve of late leader Kim Jong-il's birthday.

It is not unusual for the North to threaten to boost its nuclear deterrent. North Korea has repeatedly vowed to further develop its missile and nuclear weapons programs, viewing them as a deterrent against what it claims is Washington's hostile policy against it.

Choe's speech could indicate that North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear program, despite international sanctions and pressure.

(Yonhap)