http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters11-20-061419.asp?reg=PACRIM<snippet>
North Korea expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors on December 31 last year and later withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.
''The situation in (North Korea) continues to pose a serious and immediate challenge to the nuclear non-proliferation regime,'' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in the text of a speech to the IAEA's Board of Governors.
The United States, which has branded North Korea part of an ''axis of evil'' with Iran and pre-war Iraq said last year Pyongyang had admitted to having a secret nuclear weapons programme.
He said that since his inspectors were barred from the country, the IAEA could not verify that Pyongyang was not diverting nuclear material to a weapons programme.