The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that North Korea had kicked out IAEA inspectors from the Yongbyon nuclear plant, removed its surveillance equipment there, and planned to reintroduce nuclear material.

It was the latest defiant step from North Korea toward the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia -- its partners in the six-party negotiations that produced the aid-for-nuclear disarmament deal last year.

"We strongly urge the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance with its obligations as outlined in the six party agreements," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

"The North Korean actions are very disappointing and run counter to the expectations of the members of the six party talks and the international community," he said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Under the six-country pact, North Korea agreed to disable and dismantle key nuclear facilities and allow UN atomic inspectors to return, in return for one million tonnes of fuel aid and its removal from a US list of terrorist states.

But North Korea announced last month it had halted the process in protest at Washington's refusal to drop it from the US blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, as had been promised.

Washington says the North must first accept strict outside verification of the nuclear inventory that Pyongyang handed over in June.

The latest North Korean moves against the IAEA, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, "will only deepen their isolation," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned here.

But, when asked by a reporter "what is going on exactly in North Korea?," Rice declined to answer.

In an interview Tuesday with CNBC television, Rice figuratively threw up her hands when asked whether the reported poor health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was hurting the negotiations.

"Something is going on in North Korea. I don't think any of us know precisely what. We are reading all of the reports that you've talked about," Rice said in the interview that the State Department released Wednesday.

Christopher Hill, her chief negotiator with North Korea, acknowledged Monday that the troubles in the negotiations may be linked to South Korean intelligence leaks that Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il, 66, has suffered a stroke.

"It's hard to tell," said the assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs.

However, Hill dismissed suggestions that the negotiations with North Korea -- once spurned by President George W. Bush who lumped Pyongyang in the "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran -- were now unraveling.

"They've been staking out some very tough negotiating positions ... so yes, the negotiating process does continue," Hill said.

Nor was Rice giving up on a legacy of nuclear non-proliferation in Asia.

"By no means," Rice said when a reporter asked if the negotiations were dead. "We have been through ups and downs in this process before but I think the important thing is this is a six-party process."

Both Rice and Hill have been or are scheduled to hold an intensive series of talks with their counterparts from South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

Seoul, which has never signed a peace treaty with Pyongyang since the end of the Korean war in the 1950s, said Wednesday "it is very concerned about North Korea's continued move to restore nuclear facilities in Yongbyon."

related report
NKorea raises stakes in nuclear dispute with US
North Korea has dramatically raised the stakes in its nuclear dispute with the United States, threatening to create a fresh crisis unless Washington makes concessions, analysts said Wednesday.

The communist state has told the UN's atomic watchdog to remove its seals and cameras from the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon which produces plutonium for its nuclear weapons.

It has announced it will reintroduce nuclear material to the plant in one week and barred International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from the reprocessing plant, the Vienna-based UN agency said earlier Wednesday.

Fourteen months after Yongbyon was shut down under a six-nation aid-for disarmament deal, the North is actively preparing to restart a key component amid an apparently intractable dispute with the US.

The North is working to restart Yongbyon in protest at the US failure to remove it from a terrorism blacklist, as required under the agreement.

The US refuses to do so until the North allows strict outside inspections to verify a nuclear inventory which it handed over in June.

The North, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, protests that such "robber-like" inspections are not provided for in the six-party pact.

"Tension is expected to grow due to North Korea's brinkmanship, which is now at its highest level," said Kim Yong-Hyun, a Dongguk University professor in North Korean studies.

"North Korea is ratcheting up the stakes ahead of elections in the US in an attempt to earn concessions. It is challenging Washington to make concessions or face a fresh nuclear crisis," Kim said.

"This is not mere bluff. If there is no response from the US, North Korea will take further steps to reactivate its nuclear facilities, although this would take months."

Kim said Wednesday's announcement does not mark the complete collapse of the six-party deal. "There is still room for negotiations if the US takes conciliatory action."

Pyongyang's tough stance coincides with the reported illness of leader Kim Jong-Il. South Korean officials said he underwent brain surgery following a stroke around mid-August but is recovering.

Analysts were unsure if the two developments are connected.

"The North's hardline stance appears to be led by its military with consent from Kim Jong-Il" if he is conscious, said Dongguk University professor Koh Yu-Hwan.

The powerful military is seen as especially reluctant to give up the nuclear programme which the impoverished state spent decades developing.

"The North is sending a warning message that the US should delist it from the blacklist or see nuclear proliferation," Koh said.

"It is telling US that it can go its own way, that it has nothing to lose because it has become a nuclear-armed state."

Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the development is serious but at this point appears still reversible.

From the North's strategic bargaining perspective, he said, this could be a good time to act -- with a lame-duck president and the US focused on the upcoming election and financial turmoil.

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