Blog Archive » Myanmar buying DPRK. Burma, North Korea and the nuclear question. Author: Andrew Selth, Griffith University For the past ten years, Burma has been accused of trying to acquire a nuclear weapon. A number of developments during this period — notably Burma’s growing relationship with North Korea — have raised international concerns. Yet, to date, no hard evidence of such a plan has been produced. Claims of a secret nuclear weapons program date back to 2000, when Burma’s military government announced that it was going to purchase a small research reactor from Russia. The SMH claimed that there were in fact two nuclear projects running in Burma.
Needless to say, such claims have been the subject of close scrutiny by the US and other governments. The US government has expressed its concern about the defence ties that appear to have developed between Burma and North Korea over the past decade. Of all Southeast Asian countries, Burma has the strongest strategic rationale for a nuclear weapons program. Burma-and-north-korea-conventional-allies-or-nuclear-partners.pd. Is there a Burma-North Korea-Iran nuclear conspiracy?
Andrew Selth is a Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute. He has recently returned from Burma and Thailand. If the Obama Administration was looking for another foreign policy challenge, all it would have to do is take seriously the rumours circulating in Thailand that Burma is pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program, with help from North Korea and Iran. These stories have all the ingredients of a real security nightmare.
The question is, are any of them true? In 2000, when Burma’s military government announced it was going to purchase a 10MW light water reactor from Russia, activist groups immediately warned that the generals were not to be trusted. They accused the regime of secretly planning to develop a nuclear weapon, to threaten the international community and resist pressures to reform. At the time, these suspicions were greeted with scepticism. But Burma’s military leadership was highly unpredictable, and prone to bizarre behaviour. These claims are still to be verified.