UN nuclear team quit N Korea, US group to follow

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SEOUL, April 16 (AFP): UN nuclear inspectors left North Korea Thursday after the hardline communist state ordered them out and announced plans to restart production of weapons-grade plutonium.
A three-man team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Beijing but declined comment to reporters.
A separate four-member US team which had been monitoring the North's disablement of its Yongbyon nuclear complex was also preparing to leave after being ordered out, the State Department said.
The complex produced enough plutonium for a 2006 nuclear test and for several other bombs until it was shut down in 2007 under a six-nation disarmament deal.
The North, angry at UN censure of its rocket launch this month, announced Tuesday it was scrapping the deal and would reopen the plants to build up its nuclear deterrent.
The UN inspectors removed their seals from equipment and rooms before leaving, a diplomat close to the IAEA said.
Wood said the United States would speak with other nations in the talks-China, Japan, South Korea and Russia-about the next step.
North Korea has previously threatened to quit the talks, which began in 2003 and several times came close to collapse.