New York - North Korea Saturday formally charged that it is rebuilding its nuclear plant because the United States made additional demands and broke an agreement to delist its country as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon denounced the US as "the worst peace breaker and human rights violator in the world" as evidenced by US invasions of sovereign countries and massacre of innocent people, a reference to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Seoul - North Korea's intentions to restart its nuclear programme are bringing negotiations to the brink of a breakdown, said South Korea's top diplomat Friday.

"We are at a difficult situation where we may be going back to square one," said South Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan Friday in a speech at Seoul National University.

Yu said North Korea was possibly making a stratgic move ahead of the upcoming presidential election, in order to win a better negotiating position.

Washington, Sept. 25: North Korea is reported to be planning to resume the reprocessing of plutonium, perhaps as soon as next week, raising concerns in Washington.

According to the New York Times, the country is on the verge of restarting a nuclear weapons program whose shutdown had earlier been portrayed by the White House as a significant diplomatic achievement.

U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the United States still hoped to preserve a hard-won agreement that called for the North to dismantle its nuclear reactor.

But North Korea has refused to resume talks, and no new ones are planned.

Vienna- North Korea has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it plans to operate its plutonium- reprocessing facility next week, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Melissa Fleming also said that North Korea had informed the Vienna-based agency that "from here on the IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant."

IAEA inspectors will remain at Yongbyon nuclear complex to monitor the freeze of the reactor and other nuclear facilities located there.

Vienna- North Korea has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it wants to remove seals and cameras at its nuclear facilities and plans to resume work in its reprocessing plant, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday.

A North Korean official announced last Friday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as North Korea is officially called, was working to restart its nuclear facilities in Yongbyong.

Vienna  - North Korea has not informed the International Atomic Energy Agency