North Korea will not participate in a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday, set to discuss its regime's questionable human-rights record for the first time, The Associated Press reported. Pyongyang accuses the United States and its allies of using the issue as a weapon to overthrow dictator Kim Jong-Un and said North Korean refugees who revealed the regime's atrocities were "human scum."

The Security Council session comes in the wake of accusations that North Korea is behind the massive hacking of Sony Pictures and the threats surrounding the release of the entertainment company's movie "The Interview," which depicts Kim Jong-Un in a negative light.

The White House last week formally acknowledged it believes Pyongyang is behind the scandal; North Korean diplomats have denied involvement, though they have characterized the breach as a "righteous deed" carried out by sympathizers.

The 15-member U.N. body is being urged to refer the North's human-rights situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which the AP called "as a court of last resort for atrocities." Given the veto power Pyongyang's traditional ally China holds in the Security Council, however, that effort seems unlikely to succeed.

The briefing, "The Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," was initiated by Australia, which completes a two-year mandate as one of the Council's 10 non-permanent members at the end of the year, TIME noted. Researchers led by a former justice of the Australian Supreme Court had previously issued a report detailing the humanitarian conditions in North Korean concentration camps and Pyongyang's widespread violations of human rights.

The North Korean regime refused the researchers entry into the country, and their findings are based on hundreds of interviews with defectors and eyewitnesses. The Security Council has debated North Korea's nuclear program on numerous occasions, but this is the first time it will focus on allegations surrounding starvation and a harsh political prison camp system of up to 120,000 inmates.

Pyongyang had threatened unspecified retaliation after the General Assembly recommended the Security Council refer unnamed North Korean officials to the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity. If the council proceeds, "maybe we will take necessary measures," diplomat Kim Song said on Friday without giving details.