Angry North Korea threatens nuclear U-turn

The communist nation said it halted the dismantling of the plutonium-producing plants on August 14, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The North "will consider soon a step to restore the nuclear facilities in (Yongbyon) to their original state," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that KCNA carried.

North Korea agreed to a complete dismantling of its Yongbyon nuclear complex by October. In return, U.S. President George W. Bush said he would lift some U.S. sanctions against North Korea and remove it from a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The sticking point between the two countries involves verification.

Washington said last week it will not remove North Korea from the terrorism list until Pyongyang agrees to set up an internationally recognizable mechanism to verify its declaration.

The U.S. has demanded that inspectors be given the right to visit all suspected nuclear facilities without notice, the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, said.

North Korea rejects that provision.

"The U.S. is gravely mistaken if it thinks it can make a house search in (North Korea) as it pleases just as it did in Iraq," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

SEOUL, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The presidents of China and South Korea at a summit on Monday called for cooperation in sputtering talks to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons while they pledged to boost trade between the major economic partners.

Chinese President Hu Jintao's two-day visit to South Korea came less than 24 hours after the closing of the Beijing Olympics and as regional powers press North Korea to accept a nuclear inspection system as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal the secretive state struck with five countries.

"We confirmed that the denuclearisation of North Korea will be achieved through six-party talks," President Lee Myung-bak said at a joint news conference with Hu.