US says North Korea call for joint probe of Sony hack 'absurd'

Washington's UN envoy on Monday dismissed as absurd North Korean demands for a joint US-North Korean investigation of the hacking of Sony Pictures and threats of retaliation if the United States refused.

"It is exactly the kind of behaviour we have come to expect from a regime that threatened to take 'merciless countermeasures' against the US over a Hollywood comedy, and has no qualms about holding tens of thousands of people in harrowing gulags," Ambassador Samantha Power said.

"It is incumbent on the Security Council to consider the (UN) Commission of Inquiry's recommendation that the situation in North Korea be referred to the International Criminal Court and to consider other appropriate action on accountability," Power added in a speech to the UN Security Council.