N. Korea nuclear deal could break down

International talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions could be heading for a breakdown after Pyongyang said it would restore a plutonium- making plant, South Korea's foreign minister said yesterday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday that the North was expelling UN monitors from its Soviet-era nuclear plant and plans to start reactivating it next week, rolling back a disarmament-for-aid deal and putting pressure on Washington.

"We are at a difficult situation where we may be going back to square one," Yu Myung-hwan said at an academic seminar.

Mr Yu, who just returned from a trip to the US where he discussed the North's latest steps with officials in Washington, said Pyongyang might be trying to turn up the heat on the outgoing Bush administration and the next person in the White House.

"It is possible that the North's decision to go back on the disablement steps is a strategy associated with the US presidential election," Mr Yu said.

The Bush team, looking for a foreign policy success with just a few months left in office, might be willing to offer last-ditch concessions and if not, Pyongyang will be in a stronger bargaining position when a new President takes office in January, analysts have said.

He told reporters there were still UN and US nuclear inspectors at Yongbyon, with analysts saying the North could want them there to watch it take its first serious steps towards re-starting Yongbyon.