US concerned over Myanmar's military ties with North Korea

Times of India ^ | Times of India

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The United States is concerned over Myanmar's "growing military ties" with North Korea and will work to ensure a UN ban on arm exports from Pyongyang is enforced, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday.

US defense secretary Robert Gates's press secretary said the United States was closely monitoring Myanmar's cooperation with North Korea in light of UN Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from exporting weapons or nuclear technology.

"We are concerned with growing military ties with the DPRK (North Korea) and are following it closely to ensure that the multiple UNSCRs (UN Security Council resolutions) are enforced," press secretary Geoff Morrell told AFP in an email.

Morrell did not comment directly on fresh allegations that Myanmar was working with North Korea to develop a nuclear programme.

A prominent US senator, Democrat Jim Webb, abruptly cancelled a trip to military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday citing the reports.

Webb had been due to hold talks with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country's reclusive military junta.

Previous details of possible links between nuclear-armed North Korea and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, prompted Washington to express concern, even though it has pursued a new policy of engagement with the junta.

"News reports published today contain new allegations regarding the possibility that the Burmese government has been working in conjunction with North Korea in order to develop a nuclear programme," Webb said.

Gates was in Singapore for an annual security conference, where talks are expected to focus on tensions on the Korean peninsula after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, which Seoul blames on the North.

President Barack Obama's administration has voiced worries about North Korea selling nuclear weapons or missile technology abroad.