According to Reuters News Agency, Mynamar (Burma) and North Korea are considering resuming diplomatic ties, which were cut when North Korean agents undertook a bomb attack on a South Korean Government delegation to Burma in 1983.
This is interesting to note since the Daewoo fiasco, where a part of the South Korean Chaebol, Daewoo, was caught selling weapons technology to Burma. Like North Korea, Burma (Mynamar) is a close client state of China’s, especially since China is now buying all the natural gas it can from Burma and supporting the generals that run Burma. Since around 2000, Burma had been making arms purchases from North Korea and having secret visits between the two as well for the purpose of Burma’s acquisition of military gear from North Korea. There have also been concerns that links between Burma and North Korea could pose a “security threat” in Asia since, in the words of Michael Green, former Asia director at the National Security Council:
”Both regimes are clearly beginning to mirror each other in terms of criminal activities, misuse of their own people to create instability for their neighbors, for negotiating purposes,”. . . “They are not interested in opening and engaging and they have things they can get from each other.”
Another consideration is that heretofore, Burma did not openly reopen diplomatic relations with North Korea for fear of offending South Korea, who has been a large trading partner, thus either the fear has subsided or the current administration has given the Burmese generals a green light.
Ultimately, the biggest common factor that the two pariah regimes share is that they both are on of a growing list of Chinese client states that either support Chinese interests of China itself, as in the case of Burma, which insures a steady supply of natural resources.
