North Korea fears US attack

NORTH KOREA yesterday accused the United States of planning an invasion and vowed to fight "to the last man," hours after it expelled two UN monitors, leaving its feared nuclear program shrouded in secrecy.

Meanwhile, both South Korea's president and president-elect urged negotiations to end the standoff over their communist neighbour's nuclear ambitions, and warned that pressure from Washington for economic sanctions might not work. The UN inspectors a Lebanese man and a Chinese woman arrived in Beijing yesterday after leaving North Korea, which is preparing to reactivate its suspected nuclear weapons program in defiance of world opinion.

"We cannot comment on anything at this stage," the man said, mobbed by reporters at Beijing's Capital Airport.