N.Korea renews criticism on Seoul after U.N. measure

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it would "respond decisively" to what it called the South Korean government's anti-Pyongyang policy and reiterated it would not negotiate with President Lee Myung-bak.

The comments came after the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee approved a resolution on Friday criticizing the North for suspected human rights abuses. South Korea joined sponsors of the resolution, the Foreign Ministry said.

Ties between the two Koreas have chilled since the conservative Lee took office in February and last week Pyongyang vowed to close border-crossing points with the South from December.

A spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland accused Lee of planning a war against Pyongyang, referring to remarks he made in the United States recently that he aimed at unification with the North under democracy.

"Lee's comments are tantamount to declaring to the world that his ultimate goal is unification through a war," North Korea's official news agency KCNA quoted the spokesman as saying.

"Our option is clear since it is proven that there's no room for negotiation with Lee's group on North-South relationship and the unification issue."

The spokesman said in the statement in Korean the North would respond decisively against Lee's stance, but did not elaborate.

Communist North Korea threatened in October to reduce the South to rubble unless it stopped civic groups from floating balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border.

At the U.N. vote on Friday, the deputy chief of North Korea's U.N. delegation said Seoul's sponsorship of the human rights resolution was "a reckless act against Korean people and unification," Yonhap news agency reported.

(Reporting by Rhee So-eui; Editing by Bill Tarrant)