Nuclear crisis deepens as North Korea expels inspectors

NORTH KOREA announced yesterday 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 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 US of seeking to overthrow the isolated and impoverished communist State's political system, said the IAEA inspectors were no longer needed.