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VIENNA: North Korea has asked IAEA inspectors to leave and said it will reactivate all its nuclear facilities, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday, after Pyongyang quit six-nation disarmament talks.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has today informed IAEA inspectors in the Yongbyon facility that it is immediately ceasing all cooperation with the IAEA," spokesman Marc Vidricaire from the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.
"It has requested the removal of all containment and surveillance equipment, following which, IAEA inspectors will no longer be provided access to the facility.
"The inspectors have also been asked to leave the DPRK at the earliest possible time," he added.
"The DPRK also informed the IAEA that it has decided to reactivate all facilities and go ahead with the reprocessing of spent fuel."
North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and restart its atomic weapons programme in protest at the UN's condemnation of its rocket launch on April 5.
North Korea "will strengthen its nuclear deterrent for its defence by all means," said a statement from Pyongyang's foreign ministry carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
"We will take steps to restore disabled nuclear facilities... and reprocess used fuel rods that came from experimental nuclear reactors," it added.
Pyongyang had been disabling plants at Yongbyon that produced weapons-grade plutonium as part of a February 2007 six-nation deal.
Tuesday's announcement came hours after the Security Council unanimously approved a statement condemning the April 5 launch, which it said contravened a resolution passed after the North's 2006 missile and nuclear tests.
The council agreed to tighten sanctions which were mandated under UN Resolution 1718 but never enforced amid hopes of progress on denuclearisation.
Pyongyang hailed what it called the "historic" launch of a communications satellite over a week ago.
But the United States and its allies say no satellite has been detected in orbit and the North's real aim was to test a long-range missile. - AFP/de
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