To raise awareness about the human rights crisis in North Korea, students pretended to drop dead and laid motionless on Ho Plaza on Tuesday to represent victims of starvation and prison camps.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday it was restarting its rogue nuclear program, booting U.N. inspectors and pulling out of disarmament talks in an angry reaction to U.N. Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.

Pyongyang ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to remove seals and cameras from its Yongbyon nuclear site and leave the country as quickly as possible, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

North Korea told the IAEA it was "immediately ceasing all cooperation" and "has decided to reactivate all facilities and go ahead with the reprocessing of spent fuel," according to a statement from the U.N. agency.

There is calm in Northeast Asia. But it is an uncertain calm. The “hermit kingdom” of North Korea remains as reclusive, impoverished and repressive as ever, constituting a potential threat to the region--either through conflict or collapse. The fragility of the country was emphasized over the past couple of weeks with the widely circulating rumors concerning health problems of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-il.

WASHINGTON (AP) — North Korea has agreed to all U.S. nuclear inspection demands and the Bush administration responded Saturday by removing the communist country from a terrorism blacklist. The breakthrough is intended to salvage a faltering disarmament accord before President Bush leaves office in January.

"Every single element of verification that we sought going in is part of this package," State Department Sean McCormack said at a a rare weekend briefing.

North Korea will allow atomic experts to take samples and conduct forensic tests at all of its declared nuclear facilities and undeclared sites on mutual consent. The North will permit experts to verify that it has told the truth about transfers of nuclear technology and an alleged uranium program.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Bush said Wednesday that North Korea has much to do before the U.S. can remove it from the terror blacklist, but expressed hope that its pariah status as a member of the "axis of evil" could some day be a thing of the past.

Pyongyang expects Bush to remove it from the U.S. list of terror-sponsoring countries as soon as next weekend, as promised when the North blew up its nuclear reactor cooling tower in June. But Bush, speaking at a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, said North Korea must first agree to international terms for verifying its dismantlement efforts.

"I don't know whether or not they're going to give up their weapons," Bush said. "I really don't know. I don't think either of us knows."

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Thursday lifted trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an "axis of evil."

The announcement at the White House came after North Korea handed over a long-awaited accounting of its nuclear work to Chinese officials on Thursday, fulfilling a key step in the denuclearization process.