South Korea is expected to announce plans to curtail the North's suspected trade in weapons of mass destruction, further raising tensions with Pyongyang after the North vowed to quit nuclear disarmament talks.
North Korea said yesterday it would re-start a plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium in response to a UN rebuke over its launching of a long-range rocket 10 days ago.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said its inspectors have also been ordered to leave North Korea.
In a move bound to ratchet up tensions, South Korea is poised to reveal it will soon join US-led interception of shipments suspected of carrying parts or equipment for weapons of mass destruction. Pyongyang has said such an action would be considered a declaration of war.
The plan, called the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and joined by 94 countries, would let South Korea stop and board North Korean ships sailing in its territorial waters when suspected of carrying arms or other illicit materials.
North Korea's threat yesterday to quit six-party disarmament talks poses the first big foreign policy test for the Obama administration.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton criticised the expulsion of the UN nuclear inspectors as an unnecessary provocation but said Washington was ready to talk."Obviously we hope that there will be an opportunity to discuss this not only with our partners and allies but also eventually with the North Koreans," Mrs Clinton said in Washington.
North Korea's expulsion of UN nuclear inspectors is a major reversal of steps it took in 2007 halting the operation of the Yongbyon nuclear complex and allowing the IAEA in to seal facilities there.
The UN Security Council on Monday condemned North's launch of a long-range rocket, declaring it was a violation of a UN resolution adopted in 2006 after the North's nuclear and missile tests and ordered the enforcement of existing sanctions.
Reuters