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A day after the United Nations released a damning report on crimes against humanity by North Korea 鈥� abuses that it warned China may be "aiding and abetting" 鈥� Beijing dismissed the UN effort as "unreasonable criticism."

"We believe that politicizing human rights issues is not conducive towards improving a country's human rights," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said聽at a briefing聽on Tuesday,聽underscoring the view of many diplomats that North Korea's ally is unlikely to support any action by the UN Security Council.聽

The report, released Monday,聽warns of "unspeakable atrocities" within North Korea at the hands of Kim Jong-un's regime, 鈥淭he gravity, scale and nature of [which] reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.鈥�

The nearly 400-page report documents a litany of crimes, including "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation."

The UN commission, which consisted of officials from Australia, Serbia, and Indonesia, advised that the UN should refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, and implement sanctions against those deemed most responsible for the ongoing abuses 鈥� potentially including Mr. Kim.

The commission also warned China that it should stop forcibly repatriating North Koreans fleeing their country, and extend them refugee status. The report found that most of those repatriated end up in the North's massive work camps, where the worst abuses take place.

But Ms. Hua, of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, cautioned against going to the ICC.聽

She also denied that North Koreans fleeing into China were refugees, instead calling them illegal immigrants who had crossed the border for economic reasons.

Pyongyang also denied the report's findings as "fabricated and invented," reports Al Jazeera. "The DPRK [North Korea] once again makes it clear that the human rights violations聽mentioned in the so-called 'report' do not exist in our聽country."

The Los Angeles Times notes that many of the atrocities cited in the report are well known in the human rights community, but "their inclusion in a comprehensive document compiled by a U.N.-appointed panel appears to be unprecedented." The Times adds that the North Korean abuses have gotten worse under Kim Jong-un, whom many had hoped would prove to be less oppressive than his father, Kim Jong-il.

And North Korea expert Leonid Petrov told Agence France-Presse that regardless of the report's findings and recommendations, the issue of abuses "cannot be resolved unilaterally, nor swiftly, without transforming the political climate of the whole region."