PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) – North Korea held a mass rally Tuesday in its capital to protest a United Nations resolution condemning its human rights record.

Thousands of protesters in Kim Il Sung Square carried banners praising their leaders and condemning the United States. Such mass rallies are organized by the government and are used to express its official line.

North Korea has denounced the U.N. resolution, which is the first to urge the Security Council to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court. That would open the possibility of its autocratic leader, Kim Jong Un, being targeted by prosecutors. The non-binding resolution is to come before the U.N. General Assembly in the coming weeks.

North Korea says the U.N. move is based on trumped-up allegations by defectors and backed by the United States and other countries seeking to overthrow its ruling regime. Its state media have been producing articles critical of the human rights situation in the United States and threatening severe retaliation against any attempts to bring down its government.

 The resolution followed a U.N. commission of inquiry report early this year that said North Korea's human rights situation ``exceeds all others in duration, intensity and horror.''