More than 10,000 U.S. troops will participate in a large-scale landing drill in South Korea next week, the U.S. military said Thursday, days after North Korea test-fired 25 projectiles in apparent protest at the continuing joint exercises.

The drill, code-named Ssang Yong ("Twin Dragons") and billed by local news media as one of the largest-ever of amphibious landing exercises by the two allies, will take place from March 27 through to April 7 on the southeast coast of South Korea.

China on Tuesday urged the world community not to provoke tensions by "politicizing" human rights in North Korea, which a U.N. inquiry has compared to those in Nazi Germany and under Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

"We oppose politicizing the human rights issue or interfering in others' internal affairs on the pretext of the human rights issue," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing.

The crimes of North Korea's regime are as chilling as those of the Nazis, South Africa's apartheid regime or Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and must be stopped, the head of a U.N. inquiry said Monday.

"Contending with the great scourges of Nazism, apartheid, the Khmer Rouge and other affronts required courage by great nations and ordinary human beings alike," Michael Kirby told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

South Korea urged North Korea Monday to stop what it called "provocative" and potentially dangerous rocket and missile tests, a day after Pyongyang test-fired 25 projectiles into the sea.

The North Sunday fired the volley of rockets into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the latest in a series of launches in recent weeks that have sparked criticism from Seoul and Washington.

North Korea Sunday test-fired 18 rockets into the sea, South Korea's defence ministry said, the latest in a series of launches that have provoked criticism from Seoul and Washington.

The rockets were fired off the North's east coast and flew about 70 kilometres (42 miles) over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), a ministry spokesman said.

North Korea has threatened to demonstrate its nuclear deterrence in a move analysts say could indicate the regime is preparing to carry out a fourth atomic test amid long-stalled disarmament talks.

The powerful National Defense Commission (NDC), chaired by leader Kim Jong-Un, said on Friday that the North would continue efforts "to bolster up its nuclear deterrence for self-defense".

North Korea is becoming more and more adept at dodging international sanctions, a panel of experts said in a report presented Tuesday to the United Nations.

The commission of eight experts told the U.N. Security Council that it reached this conclusion on the basis of recent inspections and seizures of banned cargo.

A North Korean-flagged tanker laden with oil from a rebel-held terminal in eastern Libya slipped the warships deployed to intercept it and escaped to sea on Tuesday, MPs said.

The Morning Glory, which docked in al-Sidra on Saturday and is reported to have taken on at least 234,000 barrels of crude, is the first vessel to have loaded oil from a rebel-held terminal since the revolt against the Tripoli authorities erupted last July.

North Korea confirmed Tuesday a near-perfect turnout for its parliamentary "election" in which single candidates -- approved by the political elite -- stood uncontested in 687 constituencies across the country.

"According to the election returns available, 99.97 percent of all the voters registered... took part in the election," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

The younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has made an official debut of sorts, consolidating the grip on power of the ruling Kim dynasty's third generation.

Kim Yo-Jong, believed to be 26, accompanied her elder brother to a polling station on Sunday when North Korea held stage-managed elections to its rubber stamp parliament.