* U.N. rights forum denounces grave violations in N. Korea

* Renews mandate of its special investigator for one year

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, March 26 (Reuters) - The U.N. Human Rights Council deplored "grave and widespread" violations in North Korea on Thursday, especially the use of torture and labour camps, and extended the mandate of its special investigator.

The Geneva forum, which has 47 member states, adopted a resolution presented by the European Union and Japan. Six states, including China, Russia and Cuba, voted against the resolution which passed with 26 votes and 15 abstentions.

The text, backed by South Korea, voiced concern at the "grave, widespread and systematic human rights abuses in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in particular the use of torture and labour camps against political prisoners and repatriated DPRK citizens".

The debate came as the U.S. State Department said that envoys from Japan, South Korea and the United States would meet in Washington on Friday to consult over North Korea, which has a long-range missile in place for launch. [nSP469853]

The U.N. body renewed by one year the mandate of its special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea, Vitit Muntarbhorn, and called on the communist-ruled country to allow him to visit.

Muntarbhorn, a Thai jurist acting in the independent post, said in a report this month that North Koreans are subjected to "intolerable suffering" including starvation, torture and almost universal spying.

North Korea's delegation rejected the resolution as being "full of distortions and fabrications".

The EU-Japan resolution expressed deep concern at unresolved cases of foreign nationals abducted by North Korea.

The abduction of several Japanese by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s has remained an emotional issue and a major obstacle to establishing diplomatic ties between the two.

The text voiced alarm at the "precarious humanitarian situation" and urged Pyongyang to ensure "full, rapid and unimpeded access" of aid that is delivered on the basis of need.

North Korea, which suffers from chronic food shortages and where many people are believed to be on the brink of starvation, last week rejected future food aid from the United States.

The United States is at loggerheads with North Korea, along with other parties involved in six-nation talks, over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency, said on Thursday that if the international community punished it for a missile launch next month it would restart a plant that makes weapons grade plutonium.

The United States is not a member of the Council and does not have voting rights. However, it was among co-sponsors of the EU-Japan text, along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jonathan Lynn)

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