NORTH KOREA has ordered international nuclear inspectors out of the country and said it would "never again" take part in talks aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons, dealing an early setback to the Obama Administration's disarmament efforts.

On Tuesday the North Korean Government announced it would resume building nuclear weapons, in a strident reaction to a rebuke from the United Nations that had been requested by the Obama Administration. The White House said North Korea had taken "a serious step in the wrong direction" but offered no guidance as to how it planned to restart the long-stalled drive to abolish North Korea's nuclear program.

However, analysts said US officials could be forced to take steps they had long avoided, such as approaching North Korea with one-on-one negotiations in order to rekindle broader six-party talks involving China, Russia, Japan, the US and North and South Korea.

The UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's launch of a missile on April 5, and demanded a halt to all future missile launches. North Korea reacted by calling the Security Council's statement a "brigandish," "wanton" and "unjust" infringement of its sovereignty.

The North Korean Government then gave official notice to the UN's nuclear watchdog agency that it wanted its inspectors to leave and stated it would restart its plutonium production facility. "There is no need for six-party talks any more," said a statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

Despite the ominous developments and the difficulty they created for the Obama Administration, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said the Administration was "quite pleased" with the council's statement.

For more than a week, US officials have urged council members to condemn the launch, which it viewed as a test of North Korea's intercontinental missile capability, and a breach of council resolutions. North Korean officials contended the launch was legal and was intended to boost a communications satellite into orbit.