North Korea Warns South Of 'Catastrophic Consequences' After UN Human Rights Office Opens In Seoul

North Korean officials said Thursday that they'd "reached a point of no return" in their relationship with South Korea. The comment, made in a statement by North Korea’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, came after South Korea opened a United Nations human rights office in Seoul to track what was happening in the neighboring communist country, the Korea Herald reported.

“The South must be aware that it has now passed the point of words,” the committee said. Now, it continued, the two countries face the "ultimate standoff."

The U.N. office opened in Seoul Tuesday, as recommended in a February 2014 report on possible human rights violations by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, International Business Times previously reported. Staff there were set to monitor and document further violations and "lay the basis for future accountability," High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement. But North Korea rebelled, arguing that creating the office was just a political move to wreck the reputation of the DPRK.

On Thursday, the committee said that South Korean President Park Geun-hye would have to "entirely take the blame for all the ensuing catastrophic consequences in the North-South relations from this moment," Anadolu Agency reported.

The statements were the latest in a series of threats out of North Korea. In March, North Korea announced the South would see "merciless punishment" if it opened the office. On Tuesday, a statement appeared on the state news agency's website calling the office an affront to its dignity, the Telegraph reported.

"The DPRK will decisively foil the reckless 'human rights' racket against the DPRK through resolute toughest counteractions," it read. "This is an anachronistic behavior and a grave provocation pushing the inter-Korean confrontation to an extreme phase contrary to the desire of all Koreans for improved inter-Korean relations."