SEOUL, (Reuters) – North Korea ordered U.N.  inspectors to leave yesterday after saying it would quit  international nuclear disarmament talks and restart a plant  that makes bomb-grade plutonium, the United Nations said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strongly criticized  the expulsions and said she hoped the United States and its  allies could discuss it with the North. We are viewing this as an unnecessary response to the  legitimate statement put out of concern by the Security  Council,” Clinton told reporters in Washington.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned  North Korea’s rocket launch on April 5 as contravening a U.N.  ban and demanded enforcement of existing sanctions.

“Obviously we hope that there will be an opportunity to  discuss this not only with our partners and allies but also  eventually with the North Koreans,” added Clinton, who was set  to meet a senior Chinese official in Washington.

North Korea said in a statement the U.N. action and  separate six-country nuclear talks were an infringement of its  sovereignty and it “will never participate in the talks any  longer nor … be bound to any agreement.”
The statement, carried by the official KCNA news agency,  said North Korea would “bolster its nuclear deterrent for  self-defense in every way.”

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International  Atomic Energy Agency, said North Korea had ordered U.N.  inspectors to leave the reclusive communist country.    “(North Korea) has today informed IAEA inspectors in the  Yongbyon facility that it is immediately ceasing all  cooperation,” IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said in a  statement issued in Vienna. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “North Korea will  not find acceptance by the international community unless it  verifiably abandons its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

Experts said the poor, energy-starved North lacked the  technology to make an advanced light-water reactor.

Financial markets in Seoul and Tokyo were not affected by  North Korea’s announcement, with investors seeing it as more of  the sabre-rattling they have come to expect from Pyongyang.