N.K. expels U.N. nuclear inspectors

North Korea expelled international monitors from its nuclear site in Yongbyon on Tuesday after pledging to restart its nuclear program in response to the U.N. Security Council condemnation of its rocket launch, according to U.S. officials.

Pyongyang ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to remove seals and cameras from the Yongbyon facility and leave the country as quickly as possible, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

North Korea told the IAEA it was "immediately ceasing all cooperation" and "has decided to reactivate all facilities and go ahead with the reprocessing of spent fuel," according to a statement from the U.N. agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she saw the move "as an unnecessary response to the legitimate statement put out of concern by the Security Council."

"Obviously we hope that there will be an opportunity to discuss this not only with our partners and allies, but also eventually with the North Koreans," she told reporters on Tuesday.

Washington denounced the North`s decision and urged it to return to the six-nation talks.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the international community will not accept North Korea until it abandons what Washington calls its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"We call on North Korea to cease its provocative threats, to respect the will of the international community and to honor its international commitments and obligations," said Gibbs.

"North Korea`s announced threat to withdraw from the six-party talks and restart its nuclear program is a serious step in the wrong direction."

Gibbs said that the United States was prepared to work with North Korea and its neighbors through the six-party process to reduce tensions and achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.

The North had agreed to shut down and seal the Soviet-era nuclear plant in Yongbyon under a disarmament-for-aid deal reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States in February 2007.

A team of U.S. experts and IAEA inspectors have been stationed at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, since November 2007 to monitor and verify the disabling process.

The North has ousted foreign nuclear inspectors several times in the past, including in 2002 and 2008, triggering a diplomatic impasse each time.

The Yongbyon complex contains a five-megawatt reactor, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing unit where weapons-grade material can be extracted from spent fuel rods.

U.S. officials said the North has produced enough plutonium for six to eight nuclear weapons.

The U.N. Security Council, which consists of 15 member countries including China and Russia, adopted a presidential statement on Monday, condemning North Korea`s rocket launch on April 5 as a violation of a 2006 resolution prohibiting the country`s ballistic missile activity. The statement demanded the North not conduct further launches and return to the six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program.

The North`s foreign ministry retaliated Tuesday by vowing to quit six-party talks and to restart its nuclear program.

"We will bolster our self-defensive nuclear deterrent in every way," the ministry said in a statement.

"We will actively consider building our own light-water nuclear reactor, revive nuclear facilities and reprocess used nuclear fuel rods."

The ministry said the six-country nuclear talks "have become useless," and it "will no longer be bound by any agreement made at the six-party talks."

The North said it put a communications satellite into orbit on April 5, a claim refuted by Washington and Seoul.

By Kim So-hyun



(sophie@heraldm.com)