The mandate of the U.N. panel of experts charged with monitoring sanctions on North Korea has been extended until April next year.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously decided to extend the mandate, "determining that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery means remained a threat to international peace and security," the U.N. said in a statement.

The 15-member council also decided that the panel's mandate should apply with respect to measures imposed in the latest sanctions resolution that was adopted early this month in response to the North's defiant nuclear and missile tests.

The council also requested that the panel submit a midterm report on its work to the sanctions committee by Aug. 5 and to the council by Sept. 7, and a final report containing its findings and recommendations to the committee Feb. 1 next year and to the council by March 15 next year.

The latest sanctions, the toughest ever to be imposed on Pyongyang, require mandatory inspection of all cargo going in and out of the North, regardless of whether by land, sea or air, while banning its exports of coal, iron and other mineral resources, a key source of hard currency that accounts for nearly half of the country's total exports.

It also prohibits all small arms and other conventional weapons from being sold to the North, bans jet and rocket fuel supplies to the country, grounds North Korean flights suspected of carrying contraband and denies vessels carrying illicit items access to ports. (Yonhap)