N. Koreans order U.N. nuclear inspectors to get out

SEOUL, South Korea -- A defiant North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said Friday it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. But the U.N. nuclear watchdog said its inspectors were "staying put" for now.

A White House spokesman denounced the expulsions and called on Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear weapons program. U.S. officials said an envoy -- possibly Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly -- likely will visit the region next month to confer with allies.

But there was no indication that Washington would talk with North Korea.

"We will not respond to threats or broken commitments," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said from Crawford, Texas.

In Seoul, the U.S.-U.N. command said Friday the North violated the truce ending the 1950-1953 Korean War six times over the past two weeks by bringing machine guns into the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

The North said its actions against inspectors were motivated partly by President Bush's calling it part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, and because the country considers itself "the target for the nuclear pre-emptive strike."

North Korea's declarations, which came days after it removed U.N. seals and disabled surveillance cameras, means the United Nations no longer would be able to monitor nuclear facilities in the communist country.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday it received a letter from North Korea "requesting the immediate removal of IAEA inspectors" from the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 50 miles north of the capital, Pyongyang.

There was no word on when the North wanted the inspectors out, although IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said inspectors "are staying put" and "are on standby."

North Korea also said it planned to reactivate a Yongbyon reprocessing laboratory to store spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors, which would generate badly needed electricity for the impoverished nation.

North Korea has one 5-megawatt reactor, and said it plans to resume building two larger, unfinished ones. The North declared Dec. 12 it would restart the 5-megawatt reactor, but IAEA and U.S. officials say the reactor can generate only negligible amounts of power.

The laboratory can extract plutonium, a component of atomic bombs, from used fuel rods. North Korea already holds 8,000 spent fuel rods, which U.S. officials say contain enough plutonium to make several atomic bombs.

Pyongyang said in its letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, that it decided to reactivate the complex after the United States canceled a fuel oil shipment promised in a 1994 agreement shutting down the facilities.

Those shipments were halted after it was revealed that North Korea was covertly developing nuclear weapons in violation of the 1994 agreement.

The most immediate fear of the IAEA is that North Korea could begin a weapons-making process that experts believe could yield several bombs within months.

"Together with the loss of cameras and seals, the departure of inspectors would practically bring an end to our ability to monitor (North Korea's) nuclear program or assess its nature," IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said. "This is one further step away from defusing the crisis."

Escalating conflict

North Korea could take other steps to heighten the conflict, including withdrawing from the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In 1993, it announced its withdrawal from the treaty, though it later suspended the decision.

South Korea said Saturday that it was sending special envoys to Russia and China "at the earliest possible date" to seek help in resolving the dispute.

"We consider all possibilities but for now our focus is on dissuading the North from restarting the radiochemical lab," a senior Foreign Ministry official, requesting anonymity, said at a briefing to local reporters.

South Korea, the official said, also is pushing to hold a high-level three-way meeting with the United States and Japan early next year.

The developments renewed fears that the Korean Peninsula was spiraling into a nuclear crisis similar to one in 1994, during which the U.S. military devised plans to bomb the Yongbyon site.

Huge armies, including 37,000 U.S. soldiers in the South, face each other across a border laced with fences, tank traps and mines.

The South Korean government said after an emergency National Security Council meeting that the North's decision was "an act that threatens security and peace on the Korean Peninsula and heightens fears of nuclear proliferation in the international community."

North Korea told the IAEA there was no reason to keep inspectors in North Korea, now that the reactor was being restarted to compensate for the suspension of the U.S. oil shipment.

"Since the freeze on our nuclear facilities was lifted, the mission of IAEA inspectors ... has automatically come to an end," Ri Je Son, director general of the North's General Department of Atomic Energy, wrote.

The IAEA normally has two inspectors in North Korea but had three on Friday because of scheduling, Fleming said.

North Korea has called for a nonaggression treaty with the United States. But the United States has ruled out talks unless the North abandons nuclear development.

North Korea, which is believed to already have one or two nuclear bombs, appears to be escalating the crisis in order to extract concessions at the negotiating table.

Pyongyang accused Washington on Friday of using the nuclear issue as a pretext for invasion, according to KCNA, the state-run news agency. It said the U.S. effort to shut down the North's nuclear program "is nothing but a pipe-dream."

McClellan, the White House spokesman, said that the Bush administration is not contemplating military action against North Korea.

"We seek a peaceful resolution," McClellan said. "For now we need to let the discussions happen between our friends and allies about the next steps."

Amid the nuclear tension, the two Koreas on Friday suspended the opening of their first cross-border roads that would take tourists and South Korean investors to North Korea.

The U.S.-U.N. Command said Friday an investigation confirmed reports by South Korean soldiers that North Korean troops brought 7.62mm machine guns into the Demilitarized Zone on Dec. 13-20.

The weapons were set up 100-400 yards north of the Koreas border, known as the Military Demarcation Line, and removed at the end of each day, a command statement said.

The U.N. Security Council, charged with overseeing international peace and security, has not met to discuss the North Korea crisis and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has not publicly addressed the matter.

Amid the tensions with Washington, North Korea also has scrapped its reliance on the U.S. dollar as a foreign currency, ordering banks and traders to use European euros instead, according to Dow Jones news service.