Vienna - North Korea told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday to stop monitoring its nuclear facilities as the country wants to restart its nuclear programme, IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said. "The inspectors have also been asked to leave the DPRK at the earliest possible time," Vidricaire said, referring to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

IAEA inspectors are present in North Korea to monitor that the country's nuclear installations remain dismantled and turned off, as mandated under the so-called six-party agreement between North and South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

North Korea has informed the IAEA that it plans to reactivate all nuclear facilities, which include a reactor and a plant to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.

To that end, the Vienna-based agency should remove all cameras and seals from the Yongbyon nuclear site, the communist East Asian nation demanded.

The reprocessing plant was used in the past to make plutonium for the North Korean nuclear weapons programme.

The country said earlier Tuesday that it would boycott international negotiations on ending its nuclear weapons programme and restore nuclear facilities in reaction to the UN Security Council's (UNSC's) condemnation of a North Korean rocket launch.

Vidricaire told German Press Agency(dpa)