The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says North Korea has asked the agency's inspectors to leave the country.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that North Korea told IAEA inspectors in the country today that it is ceasing cooperation with the agency and is ordering the inspectors out of the communist nation “at the earliest possible time.”

In particular, the North also asked the agency to remove all of the agency’s seals and monitoring equipment at the Yongbyon nuclear facility and that IAEA inspectors would no longer have access to the facility.

North Korea also notified the agency that it has decided to reactivate its facilities and reprocess spent fuel rods.

Following the agency's statement, U.S. media projected that U.S. experts and agency inspectors in the North could leave the communist state as early as this week.

The inspectors have been in the North since November of 2007 in line with six-way nuclear agreements to support North Korea’s nuclear disablement efforts and to verify related developments.

The North’s notification to the IAEA comes as it has vowed to boycott the six-way nuclear talks in protest of the U.N. Security Council’s adoption of a statement denouncing the North’s April fifth rocket launch.