December 28, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 23, 1423

SEOUL, Dec 27: North Korea announced on Friday it was expelling UN nuclear inspectors monitoring a reactor capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons and it was pressing ahead with the construction of nuclear facilities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday it had “serious non-proliferation concerns” after North Korea said it planned to restart a reactor whose use was frozen in 1994 after a crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear arms ambitions.

North Korea’s state news agency, which earlier accused the United States of seeking to overthrow the isolated and impoverished communist state’s political system, said the IAEA inspectors were no longer needed.

“As our freeze on nuclear facilities has been lifted, the mission of IAEA inspectors, who have been in Yongbyon under the (1994) Agreed Framework between North Korea and the US, has naturally drawn to an end,” the North’s news agency said, quoting a letter to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

“In a situation where there is no longer justification for the inspectors to stay in our country, our government has decided to send them out,” it said of a move that would escalate the North’s two-month showdown with the international community.

The North’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) also said North Korea would finish building power plants and a nuclear laboratory for the storage of fuel rods.

“We will be completing construction on nuclear power plants and will start operating a radioactive chemical laboratory as part of preparation for the safe storage of used fuel rods that will be produced by the power plants when the plants begin operation,” it said.

The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, confirmed that North Korea had asked its inspection staff to leave.

“We have received a letter from the DPRK (North Korea) requesting that we remove our inspectors from the country,” said Peter Rickwood, a spokesman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Earlier, the North’s news agency said a US demand that North Korea scrap its nuclear programme as a condition for talks was a prelude to a surprise US attack.

“(The United States) is rushing headlong into extremely dangerous confrontation with the DPRK (North Korea), saying that it would neither have dialogue with the DPRK nor rule out a war against it,” KCNA said.

“The US much-publicised assertion that North Korea should scrap its nuclear programme first is nothing but a pipe-dream as it calls for disarming the DPRK under the absurd pretext of its ‘nuclear programme’ and then launching a surprise attack on it to overthrow its political system,” it said.

The North’s reactor and three related facilities at Yongbyon, 90kms north of Pyongyang, were taken out of commission in 1994 in return for oil.

North Korea says it is reactivating the plant to produce electricity to make up for lost fuel oil supplies. The US said in October the North had admitted operating a secret weapons programme.—Reuters