Seoul  - South Korea's government has not written off the six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme although Pyongyang withdrew from the negotiations, South Korea's prime minister said Wednesday.

"We think that six-party talks are the only forum where the North Korean nuclear issue can be discussed and be solved," Han Seong Soo said in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa in Seoul, a day after North Korea vowed never to participate in the talks again.

"I don't think they're dead," Han said of the discussions that began in 2003 and involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

The other participants must wait until North Korea returns to the negotiating table, the premier said.

Han said he regretted the totalitarian state's decision Tuesday to stop its participation in the talks in reaction to the UN Security Council's condemnation of a North Korean rocket launch this month.

"That is very, very unfortunate," he said.

He added, however, that he believes negotiations could be continued because other countries are involved and ready to proceed.

On Tuesday, North Korea said it would not be bound by any agreements made at the six-party talks and would restore nuclear facilities that it had disabled as part of those negotiations.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry also said it intended to restart a reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear facility, 100 kilometres north of Pyongyang, as well as reprocess nuclear fuel rods for plutonium, build its own light-water nuclear reactor and "bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way." Plutonium can be used for nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' global nuclear watchdog, stopped monitoring North Korea's nuclear facilities Wednesday, a diplomat in Vienna said, one day after the country announced it would kick out the agency's inspectors.

Pyongyang's actions came in response to what it called a "brigandish," "unjust" UN Security Council statement from Monday condemning an April 5 North Korean rocket launch.

The council statement called the launch a violation of UN resolutions and demanded North Korea conduct no further launches.

Pyongyang said the launch was a "peaceful" one of a communications satellite. Japan, South Korea and the United States said no satellite has been detected in orbit and they believe the launch served as cover for testing a long-range missile. (dpa)