N. Korea To Expel U.N. Inspectors

North Korea on Friday completed its breakaway from a 1994 agreement freezing its nuclear weapons program by ordering inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to leave the country and announcing it will reactivate a laboratory able to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The inspectors were the last means that the IAEA had to monitor whether the nuclear complex at Yongbyon is being used for weapons projects.

"The departure of inspectors would practically bring an end to our ability to monitor (North Korea's) nuclear program or assess its nature. This is one further step away from defusing the crisis," IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement.

North Korean troops have also begun bringing machine guns into the demilitarized zone that separates the North from the South. The move has no military significance but it violates the terms of the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports the United States has denounced North Korea for breaking its commitments but so far has not threatened any action, a stark contrast to the preparations for war against Iraq for having committed essentially the same crime – violating agreements not to develop weapons of mass destruction.

ElBaradei sent a response to North Korea's atomic energy chief, Ri Je Son, demanding the North allow the inspectors to remain and install new seals and surveillance cameras at the site.

Despite IAEA warnings, the North removed monitoring seals and surveillance cameras from complex earlier this week.

In a letter to ElBaradei on Friday, North Korea demanded the inspectors leave "immediately" and announced its intention to reopen the reprocessing lab.

Pyongyang said in the letter that it had decided to reactivate the Yongbyon complex after the United States canceled a shipment of fuel oil promised in a 1994 agreement that froze the facilities — and because President Bush labeled the North part of the "axis of evil."

The letter also accused the United States of making the North "the target for the nuclear pre-emptive strike."

North Korea claims that it is restarting the reactor to generate badly needed electricity after the United States and its allies cut off oil shipments. The shipments were halted after recent revelations that the North Koreans had been covertly developing nuclear weapons in violation of the 1994 agreement.

In Crawford, Texas, President Bush's spokesman denounced North Korea's demand for the inspectors' removal and called on Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear weapons program.

"We will not respond to threats or broken commitments," spokesman Scott McClellan said.

U.S. officials said an envoy — perhaps Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly — would likely be sent to the region next month to confer with allies.

In Vienna, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that "at the moment, our inspectors are staying put. They are on standby." The U.N. nuclear watchdog currently has three inspectors in North Korea.

Pyongyang said it was reopening the reprocessing lab to give "safe storage" to spent fuel rods that will come from the reactor it plans to restart. The IAEA did not comment on the report on the lab.

The lab can be used to extract weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods. North Korea already has 8,000 spent fuel rods in storage that experts say could yield four or five nuclear weapons within months. The KCNA statement, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, made no mention of those stockpiled rods.

Meanwhile, the IAEA said the North was moving fresh fuel rods into the 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon. By Friday, about 2,000 new rods had been moved to a storage facility at the site, up from 1,000 a day earlier, spokeswoman Fleming said.

The reactor needs 8,000 rods to be started, Fleming said.

North Korea is one of the more than 185 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but it has refused to accept IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities as required by the treaty.

The IAEA says North Korea is still a treaty member and must accept its inspections, but the North says its signatory status depends on its 1994 nuclear deal with Washington.

South Korea on Friday convened an emergency meeting of its National Security Council to discuss the North's announcement.

Earlier, South Korea's President-elect Roh Moo-hyun said North Korea's defiant attitude could make it difficult for him to continue his predecessor's policy of seeking reconciliation with Pyongyang after he takes office in February.

"Whatever North Korea's rationale is in taking such actions, they are not beneficial to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, nor are they helpful for its own safety and prosperity," Roh said in a statement.