UN probe N-Korea rights violations of the

22 March 2013 Last update on 00: 37 ET

North Korean labor camps are described as '' places of no return ''

The UN Human Rights Council has launched an investigation into human rights abuses in North Korea for the first time.

The Council, acting unanimously, called for the probe, which allegations of prison camps, slave labor and food deprivation in the country will investigate.

North Korea denounced the resolution as a political trick.

It is highly unlikely that the team will be granted access to North Korea, so they have to rely on satellite imagery and accounts from defectors.

North Korea human rights now under strict supervision community and evidence collected by the team can be used in future prosecutions for crimes against humanity.

Marzuki Darusman, UN special rapporteur who presented the first report on North Korea and will be part of the investigation, said that a center of gravity the country to prison camps.

"The prison camps could qualify as crimes against humanity," he said. "These are the camps which have the goal of driving the people out there detained on way to a slow death."

His report also described "large-scale and systematic human rights violations" including forced disappearances and the use of food to control people.

UN High Commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay said the UN had evidence indicating that the North Korea's political prisons about 200,000 people, with many subjected to rape, torture and slave labor.

' Landmark step '

The resolution, which was presented by Japan and the European Union, has been approved by all 47 members of the Council.

North Korea's UN representative denounced the research as a "political trick"

"For the people of the country is too long subjected to widespread and systematic human rights violations and abuse," Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore said, speaking on behalf of the European Union.

North Korean Ambassador to the UN, Pyong Se-so, called the resolution "a falsified document full of political invective, with severe disruptions."

He accused the Council want to "shame the image" of North Korea, that his country had "one of the best systems in the world for the protection of human rights".

The review was welcomed by activists. In a statement, Human Rights Watch described movement as a "landmark step" which would "help expose decades of abuse by the North Korean Government".

The probe comes at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula, after the third nuclear test by North Korea in February and the subsequent tightening of UN sanctions.

On Thursday, the North Korean army statement a threaten u.s. military bases in Japan, in response to the u.s. nuclear-capable B-52 bombers flying over South Korea as part of a joint military exercise.

"The United States are advised not to forget that our objective precision tools within their reach have the Anderson Air Force base on Guam where the B-52 takes off, as well as the Japanese mainland where powered nuclear submarines are deployed and the marine bases on Okinawa," a military spokesman was quoted as saying.