U.S. says North Korea call for joint probe of Sony hack 'absurd'

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Washington's U.N. envoy on Monday dismissed as absurd North Korean demands for a joint U.S.-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 U.S. over a Hollywood comedy, and has no qualms about holding tens of thousands of people in harrowing gulags," Ambassador Samantha Power said.