IAEA says inspectors have left North Korea

The UN nuclear agency said that its inspectors left North Korea on Thursday.

"IAEA inspectors departed the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) on April 16," International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman, Marc Vidricaire, said in a statement.

The watchdog's two-man team of inspectors had removed all IAEA seals and switched off surveillance cameras at the Yongbyon nuclear facility on Wednesday.

"This follows the DPRK informing the inspectors, on April 14, that it had decided to cease all cooperation with the IAEA, requested removal of containment and surveillance equipment and required the inspectors to leave the DPRK at the earliest possible time," Virdricaire said.

In addition to the two inspectors at Yongbyon, a second two-man team of IAEA inspectors had been in Pyongyang.

Originally, they had been scheduled to take over from the first team as part of normal rotation of inspection duties.

But following North Korea's announcement that it was terminating cooperation with the IAEA on Tuesday, the second team did not proceed to Yongbyon.

All four inspectors had now departed from North Korea, the IAEA said.