A spokesman for the U.N. council said that the term for the U.N. council's special rapporteur for North Korean human rights has been extended for another year.

An information officer from the United Nations Human Rights Council told U.S.-based Radio Free Asia that the council endorsed a one-year extension of Vitit Muntarbhorn's term at the end of its first session this year on Friday.

The special rapporteur is mandated to investigate the human rights situation in the North and report his findings to the council and the General Assembly.

A professor of law at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, Muntarbhorn was named special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea in July 2004. His term ended at the end of April.

Since his appointment two years ago, the Thai professor has made several trips to South Korea, but his repeated requests for the North to allow him to visit the communist state have yet to be accepted.