North Korea has condemned the opening of a United Nations field office in South Korea, calling it an unacceptable provocation aimed at realizing unification by absorbing the North.
 
Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, argued that the office is designed to undermine the North’s socialist system while disrupting the unity of North Koreans under the pretext of protecting human rights.
 
The paper also said that the South Korean government’s provocations over the North’s human rights issue are part of its efforts to enhance cooperation with the UN to put pressure on the North. 
 
The North threatened that it will mercilessly punish South Korea and the U.S. if they intensify pressure.