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2 Rogues of the world
unite By Clifford McCoy
CHIANG MAI, Thailand - With the
re-establishment of diplomatic ties, Myanmar and
North Korea, two of Asia's most reclusive and
abusive military-run regimes, have formed what
some regional observers fear has already become a
destabilizing strategic alliance.
Chief
among the concerned parties will be the United
States, which has referred to North Korea as part
of an "axis of evil" and
labeled Myanmar an "outpost
of tyranny".
The agreement re-establishing
formal bilateral relations was announced on
Thursday after a two-hour meeting between North
Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il and
Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu. The
four-person North Korean delegation arrived in
Yangon on Wednesday for a three-day visit and the
move was highly anticipated.
The agreement
could make Pyongyang the first country to open an
embassy in Myanmar's new capital of Naypyidaw.
Other nations have so far maintained their
embassies in the old capital Yangon.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu
Jianchao said that China, which shares borders and
maintains cordial relations with both countries,
is "happy to see and welcome the improvement in
bilateral ties".
Myanmar, then known as
Burma, formally severed relations with Pyongyang
in 1983, after three North Korean agents planted a
bomb that killed 18 visiting South Korean
officials, including the then-deputy prime
minister So Suk-chan and three other cabinet
ministers. Burmese security forces at the time
killed one of the agents, Captain Kim Chi-o, and
captured two others, Major Zin Mo and Captain Kang
Min-chul. Zin Mo was hanged two years later, while
Kang was sentenced to life imprisonment and
remains in Insein Prison.
Pyongyang tried
on several occasions to re-establish diplomatic
ties, but was consistently rebuffed. Burma's
reluctance to renew ties was only strengthened
when two North Korean terrorists bombed South
Korean-run Korean Airlines Flight 858 in Burmese
airspace in 1987, killing all 115 people aboard.
Bilateral trade, however, continued despite
strained diplomatic relations.
After
Burma's military junta crushed pro-democracy
protests in 1988, it moved to expand its armed
forces both to fight insurgents in its border
areas as well as to keep the civilian population
under control. Weaponry was needed to equip the
new units and Myanmar, as the country was
officially renamed by the junta, began to search
for new global arms suppliers willing to
circumvent the arms embargoes it faced from many
Western countries.
North Korea, which has
a large domestic arms industry and a willingness
to accept barter trade for weapons, was a good
alternative source. Economic mismanagement and
famines in North Korea have left it eager to
acquire foreign currency, but also primary
resources such as rice, timber and marine
resources, all of which Myanmar exports.
An additional bonus was Pyongyang's
willingness to defy the international community
and sell weapons to Myanmar's generals. Compared
with Western arms, North Korea's are cheap, often
copies of proven Russian and Chinese designs.
These weapons are also similar to weapons already
in the Myanmar military's inventory, making them
easy for soldiers to operate and maintain.
Secretive military ties While
diplomatic ties were severed, clandestine military
ties were apparently re-established in 1999. That
coincided with the Myanmar military's director of
procurement making a low-profile visit to North
Korea that same year. In November 2000, a Myanmar
delegation made a secret visit to Pyongyang and
held talks with high-ranking officials of the
Ministry of the People's Armed Forces, according
to Australian defense analyst and Myanmar military
expert Andrew Selth.
In June 2001, a North
Korean delegation led by vice foreign minister
Park Kil-yon met with State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) deputy defense minister Khin Maung
Win to discuss cooperation between the two
countries' defense industries. Low-key,
military-to-military ties have intensified in
recent years, with Pyongyang providing weapons,
military technology transfers and expertise in
underground tunneling used for concealing secret
military installations. The arms trade between
Myanmar and North Korea has so far been limited to
conventional arms and technology transfers,
including a major purchase of 130mm M46 field guns
in 1999.
Myanmar's most advanced weaponry
procurement to date includes anti-ship and
surface-to-surface missiles, which are reportedly
being fixed on the military's new class of coastal
patrol boats. There have also been frequent
unexplained visits by North Korean freighters to
Myanmar ports in recent years, which have been
shrouded in secrecy and tight security.
This has raised suspicions of potentially
more sophisticated North Korean arms deliveries,
which have been stoked by reports of North Korean
technicians based at Myanmar's military bases.
Reportedly, 15-20 North Korean technicians have
worked at Myanmar's Monkey Point naval base since
2002. Some experts speculate they are there to
help install missiles on new naval patrol boats.
North Korea is world-renowned for its
expertise in building underground military
installations and it appears to be passing these
capabilities to the SPDC. A message intercepted by
Asian intelligence agencies last year from the new
Myanmar capital Naypyidaw confirmed the arrival of
North Korean tunneling experts in October.
The SPDC is believed to be building an
extensive underground bunker complex beneath its
new capital. North Korean experts were also
involved in the construction of a massive bunker
in 2003 near the central town of Taungdwingyi. The
bunker complex, experts say, is apparently part of
the SPDC's fears of a preemptive attack by the US,
along the lines of its invasion of Iraq. There
have been unconfirmed reports that Myanmar has
also tried to acquire more exotic weapons from
North Korea. Analyst Selth detailed in his 2004
Burma's North Korean Gambit how the SPDC
apparently opened discussions with Pyongyang in
early 2002 to purchase one or two small
submarines. However, this endeavor was scrapped
for unknown reasons in late 2002.
There is
some belief among security analysts that the SPDC
is interested in acquiring short-range ballistic
missiles (SRBMs). A series of unconfirmed reports
has emerged that the military is
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