November 20th, 2012 at 1:31 pm » Comments (1)

I had to highlight President Obama’s trip to Myanmar because it shows that authoritarian regimes can change.    However, do I expect an American president to ever travel to North Korea?  I do not think it would happen any time soon because the changes required by the Pyongyang regime to be rewarded with such a trip would likely be too much for them to bare.  It seems to me the end of the gulags in North Korea would be just one pre-requirement that they could not meet.  Anyway I am glad
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May 17th, 2012 at 3:49 am » Comments (5)

Here is some good news, the North Korean regime has just lost another international revenue stream with their arms sales: – Myanmar’s president has confirmed that his country bought weapons from North Korea during the past 20 years and assured his South Korean counterpart that it will no longer do so. In a meeting with visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Myanmar President Thein Sein said his country never had nuclear cooperation with North Korea but did have deals for conventional weapons, Lee’s presidential Blue House said in an announcement
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August 7th, 2010 at 5:28 pm » Comments (6)

It looks like North Korean diplomats can pretty much do whatever they want in Myanmar: North Korean diplomats in Myanmar confiscated more than 300 copies of a biography of their reclusive leader Kim Jong Il that was written by a local author. Well-known Myanmar writer Hein Latt said Friday that two diplomats from the North Korean Embassy visited his publishing house early this month and complained that facts about their leader in his Myanmar-language biography – titled “Kim Jong Il: North Korea’s Dear Leader” – were “incorrect and false.” They
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January 11th, 2010 at 2:59 am » Comments (0)

I have long been following the North Korea-Burmese connection and now even further developments are coming about the two countries ties: Lawyers plan to file an appeal against the death sentences on two of their clients handed down by the special court in Burma yesterday for allegedly leaking official secrets to the public. The two former high ranking officers of the regime were sentenced to death in a secret trial by the court sitting inside Insein prison for leaking information about tours made by two junta leaders to Russia and
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November 15th, 2009 at 8:08 am » Comments (1)

I don’t think anyone can disagree with promoting human rights in Myanmar by demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi: President Barack Obama on Sunday told Myanmar’s junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an unusual face-to-face interaction with a top leader of the ruling military. Obama delivered the strong message during his summit with leaders of 10 Southeast Asian nations, which included Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that Obama called on Myanmar to free his fellow
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August 25th, 2009 at 6:39 pm » Comments (0)

I have long been following the accusations surrounding Myanmar’s nuclear program and here is the latest twist I found of interest: Further evidence of the Myanmar government’s apparent desire to acquire military nuclear capability was supplied recently by David Albright, the head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, which specializes in tracking worldwide nuclear proliferation. Albright published information on the institute’s Web site saying senior officials of the North Korean company, Namchongang Trading Corporation, recently visited Myanmar. Western countries have imposed sanctions on this company and
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August 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am » Comments (1)

I’m sure no one is surprised by the latest travesty going on in Burma: A Myanmar court convicted democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home. The head of the military-ruled country ordered her to serve an 18-month sentence under house arrest. The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate has already been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest, and the extension will remove her from the political scene when the
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August 7th, 2009 at 8:09 pm » Comments (3)

This cartoonist in the Korea Times thinks so:

August 4th, 2009 at 5:08 am » Comments (0)

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,
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July 24th, 2009 at 5:00 am » Comments (1)

Like many article about North Korea this one about North Korea proliferating nuclear technology to Myanmar (Burma) is pretty thinly sourced: (Via Democracy for Burma) THE recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the world’s poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club – with help from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Myanmar, also known as Burma, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have the
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