not good. this is either an attempt to extract more concessions from the west, or more room to manuever
in future talks . . . or it could mean that the news reports of kim jung il being incapacitated are true, and an
even loonier faction is in control of n. korea.
N.Korea ousts U.N. monitors, to restart atom bomb plant
VIENNA (Reuters) - North Korea has expelled U.N. monitors from its plutonium-making nuclear plant and plans to start reactivating it next week, rowing back from a 2007 deal to scrap its atomic bomb program, officials said on Wednesday.
The Stalinist state said on Friday it was working to restart the Yongbyon atomic complex it had been dismantling since last November under a disarmament-for-aid agreement with five powers.
Olli Heinonen, the International Atomic Energy Agency's head of non-proliferation safeguards, told a closed meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors that monitors were forced to leave the plutonium facility this week.
"There are no more seals and surveillance equipment in place at the (plutonium) reprocessing facility," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, referring to the most proliferation-sensitive installation at Yongbyon.
"(North Korea) further stated that from here on, IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant," she said, summarizing Heinonen's remarks.
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