North says it will expel inspectors

North Korea's Central News Agency said late yesterday that it has told the International Atomic Energy Agency it would expel two agency inspectors.

"The agents' mission has ended automatically," the report said, because the North has ended the freeze of its nuclear program. The announcement also said Pyeongyang will begin reprocessing spent fuel in storage at the site in its laboratory there, a step that could yield it more weapons-grade plutonium.

Seoul reacted with dismay. "We considered the inspectors the last hope to control the North's nuclear facilities," a government official said. "The North is headed for the brink despite the repeated expressions of concern and warnings by this government and by the international community."

President-elect Roh Moo-hyun earlier yesterday issued a stern warning to North Korea to reverse its steps to restart its nuclear program at Yeongbyeon. Mr. Roh said in a statement that such moves fly in the face of the pan-Korean desire for peace on the peninsula and have been criticized internationally. "If North Korea continues to engage in activities that have no international support," Mr. Roh said, "it will not receive any support from South Korea, either." The comments appeared to be his first qualification of his support for President Kim Dae-jung's policy of attempting to soften Pyeongyang through engagement and dialogue.

The International Atomic Energy Agency called a series of North Korean activities in Yeongbyeon in the past week "nuclear brinkmanship," rejecting the North's claims that it wanted to generate electricity.

Grand National Party members of the National Assembly's Unification and Foreign Affairs Committee lashed out yesterday against Mr. Kim's "sunshine policy" and questioned the ability of both Mr. Kim and Mr. Roh to defend the country. Representative Yoo Heung-soo said Seoul must step up the pressure on the North in ways that Pyeongyang will feel, such as suspending exchange programs.

Millennium Democrats urged that the nuclear weapons issue be addressed in ongoing contacts with the North, beginning with a ministers' conference scheduled for next month. The party said it was consulting with the Grand National Party to form a bipartisan team of lawmakers to visit the United States, possibly Pyeongyang and other capitals to try to resolve the escalating tension on the peninsula.

North Korea experts here saw the move as an attempt by the North to step up the tension and force Washington to negotiate. Kim Sung-han of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said the expulsion is probably intended to move toward a showdown with the United States by excluding the IAEA from the process.

by Kim Young-sae