Pyongyang, Dec 13 (IANS): North Korea slammed the US for helping to put the human rights issue on the agenda of the UN Security Council and said it will firmly counter the human rights racket.

North Korea "strongly denounces" and "categorically rejects" the US convocation of a UN Security Council meeting aimed at taking issue with the human rights record in Pyongyang, Xinhua cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying on Saturday.

He said the move was taken to fan up an atmosphere of international pressure on North Korea and that the human rights racket is "a product of its (US) persistent hostile policy toward Pyongyang."

The spokesman urged Washington to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang to defuse danger of a war and to create a peaceful climate on the Korean peninsula.

"We will counter with high vigilance and tough stand the anti-North Korea "human rights" racket being kicked up by the hostile forces including the US," he said.