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Clouded Alliance North Korea and Myanmar’S Covert Ties

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Clouded Alliance North Korea and Myanmar’S Covert Ties PROLIFERATION & PROCUREMENT Clouded alliance North Korea and Myanmar’s covert ties The nature of military co-operation between North Korea and Myanmar has come under international scrutiny amid fears of nuclear proliferation activities. Bertil Lintner investigates the historical ties and extent of collaboration between the two pariah regimes. personnel and equipment near the new capital, officials, including four government ministers. Naypyidaw, among other locations. However, al- Following the attack, the Myanmar security au- KEYKEY POINTS POINTSKEY POINTS legations that Pyongyang is providing assistance thorities initiated a huge manhunt to capture the • North Korea and Myanmar have to Myanmar’s ruling junta in installing nuclear bombers. One of them, North Korean Major Zin a history of close ties and military co- research reactors and uranium prospecting at Mo (also known as Jin Mo), was arrested after operation, which has intensified since the various sites in the north of the country appear being spotted swimming across a creek in east countries renewed relations in 2007. far-fetched. Analysis of the reports of nuclear Yangon. Two days later, two North Korean demo- assistance suggests that no substantial nuclear lition specialists, Captain Kang Min-chul and • A leaked report suggests Myanmar is PA/1350631 looking to procure conventional weapons, co-operation has occurred or is likely to for the Captain Kim Chi-o, were discovered hiding on equipment and training from Pyongyang, foreseeable future, with satellite imagery over re- a riverbank. Capt Kim was killed, but Capt Kang but reports of nuclear co-operation remain ported sites corroborating the analysis. was taken into custody. On 4 November 1983, the unconfirmed. Myanmar authorities announced North Korea Historic ties was behind the explosion and ordered its embassy • While Myanmar has shown an interest in Myanmar and North Korea have a long history closed and all diplomats out of the country within developing nuclear technology, the pursuit of close ties predating recent events by several 48 hours. All economic and commercial ties be- of a nuclear weapons capability is beyond decades. While Myanmar was ruled by a demo- tween the two countries were also terminated. the current financial and technological cratically elected government after independence The trial of the two captured North Korean capacity of the regime. from the British in 1948, relations with North Ko- agents was swift, and on 10 December 1983 they rea were formal and distant. However, when the were sentenced to death. While the badly injured This article was first available online at jir. Myanmar military seized power in 1962, the two Major Zin Mo was executed by hanging in Yan- janes.com on 17 September 2009. countries became closer. gon’s Insein prison on 6 April 1985, the death In 1966, the state-run Korean Central News sentence against Capt Kang was never carried peculation about the nature of military Agency was permitted to employ a Myanmar citi- out. It is likely he was spared in exchange for co- co-operation between North Korea and zen as its correspondent in Yangon (then known operating with the investigation. S Myanmar has abounded since the two as Rangoon and the capital of the country), and For over a decade, there appeared to be no Asian states re-established diplomatic relations in 1977 Myanmar’s ruler, General Ne Win, paid exchanges of any kind between Myanmar and in April 2007. Concerns were heightened in June an official visit to North Korea. The ruling- Ko North Korea. Yet, an apparent thaw in relations 2009 when a North Korean freighter destined rean Workers’ Party (KWP) became the first took place on 4 January 1996 when the Myan- for Myanmar was suspected of carrying military communist party to establish fraternal links with mar embassy in Bangkok officially invited North cargo in violation of UN Security Council sanc- the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), Korean chargé d’affaires Pang Song-hae to Myan- tions. Trailed by the United States Navy, the Kang which was Myanmar’s only legally permitted po- mar’s Independence Day celebrations in the Thai Nam I eventually returned to North Korea rather litical party at the time. In 1980, the BSPP even capital. The Japanese dailyYomiuri Shimbun pub- than risk inspection. US Secretary of State Hillary sent a delegation to attend the Sixth Congress of lished a news report on 14 January that year quot- Clinton told reporters at the 22 July Association of the KWP. According to Andrew Selth, author ing North Korea’s ambassador to Thailand, Ri Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit that of Burma’s North Korean gambit: challenge to re- Do-sop, as saying that Myanmar-North Korean the US had “growing concerns about military co- gional security, Myanmar and North Korea both communications “have been going on for some operation between North Korea and Myanmar, referred to their “common anti-imperialist and time and the atmosphere was very friendly”. which we take very seriously”, adding “the trans- anti-colonial struggle”. Although Myanmar still In fact, during his tenure in Bangkok in the ear- fer of nuclear technology” was a concern. maintained diplomatic relations with North Ko- ly 1990s, Ri Do-sop was instructed by Pyongyang Clinton’s comments appear partially justified. rea’s enemy South Korea, Selth states: “Relations to contact U Tin Winn, Myanmar’s ambassador Bilateral co-operation between the two countries with Pyongyang tended to be warmer than those to Thailand, to negotiate the repatriation of Capt has certainly increased since the 1990s, focusing with Seoul.” Kang Min-chul. While North Korea’s motivations on conventional military transfers. North Korean However, relations changed dramatically on in pursuing the release of Capt Kang are un- experts also appears to have been covertly assist- 9 October 1983, when North Korean agents known (particularly as he was seen as a traitor for ing Myanmar in constructing an extensive tun- detonated a powerful bomb in Yangon, killing 21 co-operating with Myanmar in the 1983 Yangon nel network as emergency shelters for military people – 18 of whom were visiting South Korean bombing investigation), several meetings took 48 jir.janes.com l Jane’s Intelligence Review l October 2009 PROLIFERATION & PROCUREMENT PA/1350631 Myanmar soldiers march during an Armed Forces Day ceremony in Naypyidaw on 27 March 2007. Myanmar’s concern about US airstrikes was likely to have been a major motivation behind the decision to move the capital to a more central location from the coastal site of the previous capital, Yangon. place between the two ambassadors in Bangkok figure in the Pyongyang hierarchy, Pak went on that North Korean technicians were installing in 1993-94. Ultimately however, the negotiations to become North Korea’s ambassador to Canada surface-to-surface missiles on the Myanmar failed to achieve a repatriation agreement and in 2002, and on 13 May 2005 he met US special navy’s Myanmar-class coastal patrol boats that Capt Kang remains in prison. envoy Joseph DeTrani to discuss North Korea’s were manufactured locally. Suspicions of further return to six-party denuclearisation talks. military collaboration continued in November Military co-operation In early 2002, Myanmar expressed an inter- 2006, when the 2,900-tonne North Korean cargo As informal relations between North Korea and est in buying one or two small submarines from vessel MV Bong Hoafan (Bonghwasan) sought Myanmar were re-established, Myanmar began North Korea, either the Yugo-class midget sub- shelter from a storm and anchored in a Myanmar to express an interest in North Korean-produced marine or the Sang-o-class mini-submarine. As port. Although the Myanmar authorities declared military hardware. The Myanmar military was al- reported by Jane’s on 11 June 2003, Yangon opted that an on-board inspection had found no suspi- ready familiar with similar Chinese designs that for one Sang-o-class submarine, but was forced cious equipment, journalists and embassy staff in it had procured, but the North Korean versions to abandon the deal in late 2002. The cost of the Yangon told Jane’s they remained sceptical. The were cheaper and, unlike China, North Korea was submarine and a lack of expertise to operate it Kyodo news agency reported on 26 April 2007: willing to accept barter deals, which suited the appeared to be the reason for the cancellation. “A North Korean ship under US surveillance was cash-strapped Myanmar government. Western military sources have told Jane’s that believed to have unloaded self-propelled artillery Regional intelligence sources have told Jane’s Myanmar was still interested in acquiring a small at a Myanmar port.” that in late 1998, Myanmar took delivery of be- submarine to patrol its southeastern coastal ar- This was not the last time a North Korean ves- tween 12 and 16 North Korean 130 mm M-46 eas, where smugglers and insurgents are active. A sel would be reported running into trouble in (Type 59) field guns. This represented the first future North Korea-Myanmar submarine deal is Myanmar waters. In April 2007, only days after trade transaction between North Korea and My- therefore a possibility. the restoration of ties, the North Korean freighter anmar since 1983. Subsequently, the director of On 10 July 2003, the Far Eastern Economic Kang Nam I docked at Thilawa port near Yangon. procurement of the Myanmar Armed Forces paid Review reported: “Between 15 and 20 North Ko- Myanmar officials claimed the vessel was forced an unofficial visit to Pyongyang in June 1999, rean technicians have been spotted at the Monkey to seek shelter from a storm, although two local while a Myanmar government delegation made Point naval base near Yangon and at a Ministry Myanmar reporters working for a Japanese news another secret visit to North Korea in November of Defence guest house in the northern suburb agency were turned back and briefly detained 2000 for talks with high-ranking officials of the of the [then] capital.” It is possible that North when they went to the port to investigate.
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