More information is coming out in regards to a suspected nuclear program in Myanmar being aided by the North Koreans:

Myanmar appears to be establishing nuclear facilities with help from North Korea and Russia, possibly with the intent of producing nuclear weapons, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday (see GSN, July 22).

Russia has already agreed to provide Myanmar with a light-water reactor that ostensibly would be used for production of medical isotopes. One expert said the plant was not yet built and noted Moscow’s commitment to nuclear nonproliferation.

However, the junta in Myanmar has also secretly constructed a reactor at Naung Laing that would encompass reprocessing technology designed to extract weapon-grade plutonium, according to two Burmese defectors who were interviewed in depth over two years by Australian strategic studies analyst Desmond Ball and Thailand-based journalist Phil Thornton. A command and control facility for a nuclear-weapon program was prepared at a nearby underground location, and members of the military nuclear battalion were working in the area, one of the defectors said.

“In the event that the testimonies of the defectors are proved, the alleged ‘secret’ reactor could be capable of being operational and producing a bomb a year, every year, after 2014,” Ball and Thornton asserted.

A former Burmese military officer, whom Ball and Thornton called “Moe Jo” to protect his identity, claimed he was one of 1,000 people who were to be trained to conduct the nation’s nuclear operations. Prior to undergoing training in Russia, he learned he was to join a “nuclear battalion.”

“You don’t need 1,000 people in the fuel cycle or to run a nuclear reactor,” Moe Jo said. “It’s obvious there is much more going on.”

The second defector was “Tin Min,” reportedly a former bookkeeper for the operator of a firm that held a number of nuclear-related contracts with Russia and North Korea. Pyongyang, as part of a nearly decade-old agreement, pledged to build and maintain nuclear sites in Myanmar, according to Tin Min.

He also noted a contract with a construction company to make a tunnel “wide enough for two trucks to pass each other” underneath the Naung Laing mountain.

The asserted purpose of Myanmar’s nuclear program was was dubious, Tin Min said: “They say it’s to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals. How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science? Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It’s a nonsense.”

Tin Min said his powerful boss once spoke with him candidly about Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions. “They’re aware they cannot compete with Thailand with conventional weapons,” Tin Min told Ball and Thornton. “They want to play power like North Korea. They hope to combine the nuclear and air-defense missiles.”  [NTI: Global Security Newswire]

What is scary about this if true is that if a country as backward as Myanmar is able and allowed to make nuclear weapons than pretty much anyone can.