North Korea boycotted the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday which was reviewing its record, calling it "politically-motivated".

The U.N. human rights investigator on North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana opened the session by saying that an escalation in hostilities on the divided Korean peninsula had further closed off opportunities for dialogue with the isolated government of Kim Jong Un.

North Korea was called on to reply but there was no delegation in the room. "We are not participating in any meeting on DPRK's human rights situation because it is politically-motivated," deputy ambassador Choe Myong Nam told Reuters.